About

Jacqueline Milton Hicks, PhD, is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health and a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Metropolitan College. She holds a PhD in Biostatistics from Boston University, an MS in Biostatistics from George Washington University, and a BS in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dr. Hicks is Co-Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Certificate in the School of Public Health. Her research and teaching focus on quantitative methods in public health, including courses such as Quantitative Methods in Public Health, Introduction to Biostatistics, and Introduction to R. She has received numerous teaching awards at BUSPH and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the American Statistical Association's Section of Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences. Dr. Hicks is also the co-Principal Investigator of the Summer Institute for Research and Education in Biostatistics at Boston University, aimed at promoting interest in biostatistics careers. Her professional activities include running programs to prepare low-income and first-generation college students for success in higher education, as well as research on pedagogical methods for teaching biostatistics. She is a co-Investigator on the Black Women’s Health Study, investigating how structural racism impacts dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and collaborates on projects examining telemedicine’s role in reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing, genetic modifiers in sickle cell disease, publication bias, and innovative medical record-keeping methods in countries with unreliable ID systems.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Political Science
• Business
• Geography
• Socioeconomics
• Family medicine
• Environmental health
• Gerontology
• Economic growth
• Public relations
• Economics
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Translating Medicaid policy into practice: policy implementation strategies from three US states’ experiences enhancing substance use disorder treatment

  Implementation Science · 2022 · 77 citations

  • Political Science
  • Medicine
  • Nursing

  BACKGROUND: Despite the important upstream impact policy has on population health outcomes, few studies in implementation science in health have examined implementation processes and strategies used to translate state and federal policies into accessible services in the community. This study examines the policy implementation strategies and experiences of Medicaid programs in three US states that responded to a federal prompt to improve access to evidence-based practice (EBP) substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. METHODS: Three US state Medicaid programs implementing American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria-driven SUD services under Section 1115 waiver authority were used as cases. We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with Medicaid staff, providers and health systems partners in California, Virginia, and West Virginia. Interviews were triangulated with document review of state readiness and implementation plans. The Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment Framework (EPIS) guided qualitative theme analysis. The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change and Specify It criteria were used to create a taxonomy of policy implementation strategies used by policymakers to promote providers' uptake of statewide EBP SUD care continuums. RESULTS: Four themes describe states' experiences and outcomes implementing a complex EBP SUD treatment policy directive: (1) Medicaid agencies adapted their inner/outer contexts to align with EBPs and adapted EBPs to fit their local context; (2) enhanced financial reimbursement arrangements were inadequate bridging factors to achieve statewide adoption of new SUD services; (3) despite trainings, service providers and managed care organizations demonstrated poor fidelity to the ASAM Criteria; and (4) successful policy adoption at the state level did not guarantee service providers' uptake of EBPs. States used 29 implementation strategies to implement EBP SUD care continuums. Implementation strategies were used in the Exploration (n=6), Preparation (n=10), Implementation (n=19), and Sustainment (n=6) phases, and primarily focused on developing stakeholder interrelationships, evaluative and iterative approaches, and financing. CONCLUSIONS: This study enhances our understanding of statewide policy implementation outcomes in low-resource, public healthcare settings. Themes highlight the need for additional pre-implementation and sustainment focused implementation strategies. The taxonomy of detailed policy implementation strategies employed by policymakers across states should be tested in future policy implementation research.

  DOI

• Understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on the determinants of food insecurity: A state-specific examination

  Preventive Medicine Reports · 2022 · 14 citations

  • Environmental health
  • Business
  • Geography

  This paper examines risk factors influencing food insecurity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a state in the U.S. heavily impacted by it and offers recommendations for multi-sector intervention. The U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey was analyzed to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on food security in Massachusetts from April 2020 through March 2021 using a study sample of 57,678 participants. Food security was defined as a categorical variable (food security, marginal food security, low food security, very low food security) and binary variable (food security and food insecurity). Known or suspected factors that contribute to it, such as childcare, education, employment, housing, and transportation were examined in multivariate logistic regression models. Data imputation methods accounted for missing data. Sociodemographic characteristics, including lower education level and living in a household with children, were determinants of food insecurity. Another factor that influenced food insecurity was economic hardships, such as unemployment, being laid off due to COVID-19, not working due to concerns about contracting or spreading COVID-19, or not having enough money to buy food. A third factor influencing food insecurity was food environment, such as lack of geographic access to healthy foods. Some of these factors have been exacerbated by the pandemic and will continue to impact food security. These should be addressed through a comprehensive approach with public health efforts considering all levels of the social ecological model and the context created by the pandemic.

  DOI

• Predicting longitudinal service use for individuals with substance use disorders: A latent profile analysis

  Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment · 2021 · 20 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Psychiatry
  • Family medicine
  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mari‐Lynn Drainoni

  Boston University

  14 shared

• Frédéric F. Little

  University School

  11 shared

• Gemmae M. Fix

  11 shared

• Alexis Gallardo Foreman

  Boston University

  11 shared

• C. Wakeman

  VA Boston Healthcare System

  11 shared

• JESSICA M. HOWARD

  Boston University

  10 shared

• Carl R. O’Donnell

  Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service

  10 shared

• K. Olenik

  Boston Medical Center

  9 shared

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