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Britta Anderson

Pronouns: She/Her

Principal Research Scientist
​Britta is a mixed-methods researcher leading national evaluations of maternal mortality and rural health.

Britta is a senior research scientist in the Public Health department. Britta has 15 years of experience in public health research and evaluation. She is mixed-methods and survey researcher whose work focuses on women’s health and underserved populations, including rural populations. Anderson developed her expertise in women’s health, survey methodology, and study design while completing her PhD in psychology and while working as a researcher at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. At NORC, she designs and directs evaluations and serves as a subject matter expert on women’s health. Her recent projects have been mixed-methods cross-site evaluations for the Health Resources and Services Administration. However, having worked at NORC for almost a decade, she has had the opportunity to contribute to a wide range of work at NORC, such as developing toolkits, conducting systematic screening and assessments and evaluability assessments, providing technical assistance, and developing a variety of dissemination materials.

Currently, Britta is Deputy Director for the Maternal Health Portfolio Evaluation for HRSA’s MCHB and she is Project Director for CDC’s ERASE Maternal Mortality Evaluation Plan Development. Both of these projects involve complex evaluation design or implementation for national efforts to address maternal mortality. She is also Project Director for the Provider Resiliency Evaluation for HRSA’s BHW, which is an evaluation of three programs (45 grantees) that address burnout and aim to improve resiliency among the healthcare workforce in rural and underserved urban communities. Utilizing her background in survey design and administration, Anderson co-led the development and administration of 25 surveys of providers and patients for the Health Care Innovation Awards (HCIA) project.

Britta spent eight years as a researcher at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) conducting survey studies in collaboration with researchers in academia and the federal government. Throughout this work she developed an expertise in designing surveys, fielding surveys, survey data analysis, and writing peer-review publications. She also developed a broad knowledge base about women’s health and women’s healthcare. Anderson has co-authored over 60 peer-review publications, which focus primarily on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of obstetricians and gynecologists. During this time she completed her PhD in psychology, studying how people use information during medical decision making. She co-edited a book titled Numerical Reasoning in Judgment and Decision Making about Health published by Cambridge University Press.

Education

PhD

American University

MA

American University

BA

St. Olaf College

Appointments & Affiliations

Editorial Board

Journal of Rural Health (2018 - Present)

Honors & Awards

Rural Health Fellow | 2016

National Rural Health Association’s

Project Contributions

Understanding CRNA Contributions to OB Care in Rural & Underserved Areas

Using mixed-methods evaluation and data linkage to study the experiences of certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs)

Client:

American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Foundation

HHS OMH Performance Improvement Management System

Identifying best and promising practices to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities

Client:

DHHS Office of Minority Health

Equitably Promoting a Hypertension Control Method

Determining if the Hypertension Management Program is effective in high-burden, low-resourced health care settings

Funder:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

Global Practices to Improve Maternal Mortality Outcomes in the U.S.

A comprehensive look at countries’ practices to address maternal mortality

Client:

Health Resources Services Administration

Maternal Health Portfolio Evaluation and Capacity Building

A large-scale, mixed-methods evaluation of HRSA’s Maternal Health Portfolio

Client:

Health Resources Services Administration

ERASE Maternal Mortality Evaluation Plan Development

Planning for the evaluation of the U.S.’s primary source for review of pregnancy-associated deaths

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Provider Resiliency Evaluation

Rigorous evaluation of three programs addressing health care workforce burnout and mental health

Client:

Health Resources & Services Administration

Transforming Maternal Health Model Implementation & Monitoring

Testing whether payment and delivery system reform technical assistance can improve maternal health

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servcies

Publications