Mitch R. Greenlick, PhD
Senior Investigator Emeritus
Dr. Greenlick was the founding director of the CHR in 1964 and served in this capacity until July 1995. From 1984, he also served as vice president for research of nation-wide Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. From 1990 to 2000, he served as professor and chair of the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University.
Dr. Greenlick’s research activities have been in the areas of large-scale demonstration projects relating to the organization and financing of medical care and behavioral interventions to prevent disease and promote health. He was a co-principal investigator for the Medicare Prospective Payment Demonstration Project, which provided care to over 7,600 Medicare beneficiaries on a capitation basis. He was the principal investigator of the Social/HMO project, which investigated the financial feasibility of providing a comprehensive range of long-term care services for the frail elderly. In addition to his work with large-scale demonstrations, Dr. Greenlick has had extensive experience in clinical trials, both at the local and national levels, and has provided leadership at the national level.
Dr. Greenlick received his PhD in medical care organization from the University of Michigan with specializations in sociology and social psychology. He has served as research advisor to many projects throughout the country and as an advisor to several foreign government research and medical care projects. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences when it was formed in 1971. Dr. Greenlick was named a senior fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in July 1995. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology at Portland State University, the School of Public Administration at the University of Southern California, and the School of Public Health at the University of Hawaii.
Donald Freeborn, PhD
Senior Investigator Emeritus
Dr. Freeborn served as associate director of CHR from 1970 to 1983 and as a senior investigator from 1970 to 1999. He has conducted studies on medical care utilization and costs, physician satisfaction, variation in practice patterns, effects of guidelines, and the performance of non-physician providers such as Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners. His research focuses on outcomes of substance abuse treatment and how substance abuse treatment affects medical care use and costs.
Dr. Freeborn received his doctoral degree in medical care organization from the University of Michigan. He also holds a master's degree in hospital administration from the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Freeborn has served as a consultant for the Veterans Administration and its HSR&D Field Program and has served on various scientific committees for the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the NIMH, and the Institute of Medicine.
Clyde R. Pope, PhD
Senior Investigator Emeritus
Dr. Pope is a sociologist and charter investigator at the CHR. His areas of interest included the organization and delivery of medical care services; patient satisfaction; medical care use; health beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; health status and medical care outcomes; mental health services; and aging and the care of the elderly.
Dr. Pope received his PhD in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1963. He served as the CHR's associate director from 1984 to 1996. He is now an adjunct professor of sociology at Portland State University and an adjunct professor in the department of psychiatry and in the department of public health and preventive medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University.
Barbara G. Valanis, DrPh
Senior Investigator Emeritus
Dr. Valanis is an epidemiologist specializing in cancer, occupational, and reproductive epidemiology and research on nursing roles in health care. She has led research studies focusing on how behavioral factors and racial differences affect cancer and occupational studies of back injury and anti-neoplastic drug exposures. As director of nursing research, she planned a program of nursing research for the region, including proposing priority areas for research, designing and implementing a strategy for developing nursing research, and identifying needs for supporting the program.
Her work has addressed methodological issues in screening and examined reproduction including relationships between social factors and birthweight, reproductive problems associated with work exposures, and the effects of drug use during pregnancy. Dr. Valanis led a major study on the cessation of prenatal/postnatal maternal smoking and relapse prevention. She also was the Portland Center principal investigator for the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial, which evaluated beta carotene and selected vitamins in preventing lung cancer and was the principal investigator on the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI).
Dr. Valanis received her doctoral degree from the Columbia University School of Public Health in 1975. Prior to coming to the CHR in 1986, she was professor of nursing and associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Valanis is currently an adjunct member of the faculty at Oregon Health & Science University in the School of Nursing and in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine of the School of Medicine.