Emily McCartha brings over a decade of experience in health workforce research, public education policy, and organizational evaluation to her role at the Center. She joins the Center from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she spent four years conducting state and national studies on healthcare workforce trends. When she’s not tackling health workforce issues, she enjoys spending time with her family, going for run, and she’s always up for playing pick-up soccer. Below she shares more about why she chose to be part of the Center’s team and her commitment to public service.

Why did you choose to work for the NC Center on the Workforce for Health?

The Center supports collaboration through providing connective tissue among relevant actors and information. I really believe in the power of collaboration and information, so working for the Center provided me with an opportunity to use my skills to support those endeavors.

I started working with the Center before I worked for the Center. After attending some of the initial meetings of various organizations contributing to the creation of the Center on behalf of my then organization, I begged to be put on the Center-focus work because I felt something special was happening and wanted to be a part of it. Without getting too far in the weeds, but wading in a little, I conducted my graduate research on healthcare-focused collaboratives. And I saw the success present when an organizing entity like the Center is involved, and felt the right partners, champions, and conditions were present for positive outcomes to emerge.

Fortunately, all parties involved let me work with the Center and after a year and a half, and I now work for it and am so happy to be here.

 What does your role entail?

My role is to drive connectivity among aligned research efforts in the healthcare workforce space (particularly within NC but nation-wide as well) and to conduct policy analysis. I also currently support the Health Talent Alliance (HTA) project because my work with the Center started by helping with HTA data collection.

Why is the state’s mission to strengthen the state’s health workforce important to you personally?

Public service is important to me and the work I pursue. My degrees are all related to public administration, policy, or government in some way. Although I’ve worked in various realms in the public sector, my most recent job focused on the healthcare workforce and I’m hooked. The healthcare workforce touches everyone in every aspect of life. So, working to ensure it is robust and supported so it can support all of us feels like important and valuable work.

What are some highlights from your professional experience that make you well suited for your role with the Center?

Substantively, my immediately former job was supporting research on the healthcare workforce at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill. I learned about supply and demand modeling as well as what data exists and how it can be used. There’s more information than we know or know what to do with, and I feel skilled in supporting the translation of information to practice given this work.

Prior to working at Sheps, I worked for the North Carolina General Assembly in a non-partisan staff division office called the Program Evaluation division. I conducted various types of research on any type of state-funded project or program. This helped familiarize me with policies and programs in NC as well as various types of research.

Finally, I have a PhD and worked on several teams during that time that focused on NC-based policies and programs as well as national collaborations during large-scale wildfire research. My PhD topic was on healthcare collaboratives in NC!

What are three adjectives you use to describe yourself?

Curious, human-centered, passionate (the friendlier word for intense).

What was your first job as a teenager or young adult?

I made bread at a barbeque restaurant in Texas (where I am from).

Outside of work, how do you enjoy spending your free time?

I am married and have two young daughters and two cats. So, I spend most of my time with my family engaging in their activities. I also live in a historic neighborhood with an active community that keeps me busy. Finally, I like running and I love playing pickup soccer.

What are you currently reading, listening to or watching?

During a recent trip I read two books, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Everything All at Once by Stephanie Catudal. Atmosphere, a novel, is a great read that’s easy but also interesting. It follows a woman who enters the NASA shuttle program in the 1980s. It’s more about the culture of NASA and the times versus the technical aspects of being in the program, and it’s also a love story.  Everything All at Once, a memoir by Stephanie Catudal, is beautiful read but a little heavier in content. It chronicles her husband’s battle with cancer during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also unearthing the unresolved grief of losing her father to cancer in childhood. Again, very beautiful, with extremely well worded one-sentence zingers on life that make you pause and put the book down. I enjoyed it, but it might not be for everyone.

To read Emily’s bio click here.