Lori Uscher-Pines, Ph.D., M.Sc.

Lori Uscher-Pines is a Distinguished Senior Research Scientist at Brown University School of Public Health, where she leads a research program on AI and digital health policy and emerging technologies in mental and behavioral health. She spent over fifteen years at the RAND Corporation, most recently as Senior Policy Researcher and Professor of Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, before joining Brown in 2026. Her work examines how digital health innovations shape access to care for underserved populations, including rural communities, pregnant women, and individuals with substance use and mental health conditions.

Dr. Uscher-Pines is principal investigator on two NIH-funded randomized controlled trials examining virtual models of care: one evaluating virtual breastfeeding support among minoritized mothers and one assessing experiences with virtual doula services and their impact on birth outcomes in rural communities. She is also a co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies of telehealth for substance use disorder and for mental health, and she leads qualitative and mixed-methods components of these projects. Her research has informed state and federal telehealth policy, including Drug Enforcement Agency rules about controlled substance prescribing. Her studies have repeatedly ranked among the most-read articles in Health Affairs, and she has published multiple studies in JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine. She has received two RAND Medal Awards for research impact.

Dr. Uscher-Pines earned her PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and her BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She is committed to ensuring that policy keeps pace with rapidly evolving models of virtual and technology-enabled care.