Phone:

317-274-5246

Email:

hhavens@iu.edu

Departments:

Health Policy and Management

Degrees:

PhD, Health Policy and Management, Indiana University

MPH, Health Policy and Management, Indiana University

BA, Public Health Dental Hygiene, Indiana University School of Dentistry

Resume/CV

Biography

Dr. Heather L. Taylor is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and an Affiliate Research Scientist at the Regenstrief Institute. She is a health services and health policy researcher whose work sits at the intersection of oral health, mental health, health informatics, and population health policy, with a particular focus on improving oral and mental health care for low-income and underserved populations.

Dr. Taylor began her professional career as a licensed dental hygienist, practicing in both private and community settings and working extensively with underserved populations. These clinical experiences directly inform her research agenda, which is grounded in real-world health system challenges and policy-relevant questions. She earned her MPH and PhD in Health Policy and Management from Indiana University, where she also completed a competitive National Library of Medicine Population and Public Health Informatics Fellowship. Her doctoral dissertation, recognized with Indiana University’s Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award, used advanced econometric methods and large Medicaid claims datasets to examine patterns of dental care use among low-income adults.

Dr. Taylor’s research program leverages health systems data, including electronic health records, medical and dental claims, and administrative datasets, to evaluate access to care, utilization patterns, and downstream health and economic outcomes. Her scholarship challenges widely held assumptions in oral health and mental health policy, including the presumed benefits of preventive dental care on medical spending and the strength of the oral–systemic health link. She has published extensively in leading peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA Health Forum, Health Services Research, American Journal of Managed Care, and the Journal of the American Dental Association, and her work has informed state Medicaid policy reforms and legislative testimony.

Dr. Taylor is the Principal Investigator of a National Institutes of Health K01 Mentored Career Development Award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, which supports her NIH-funded research to leverage health systems data to reduce oral health disparities. Through this work, she is developing predictive models to identify adults at risk of seeking emergency department care for non-traumatic dental conditions, with the goal of informing upstream, system-level interventions that improve access to appropriate oral health care.

In addition to her research, Dr. Taylor teaches graduate-level courses in U.S. Health Care Systems and Health Policy within the MPH program, delivering instruction in live, hybrid, and online formats. Her teaching emphasizes critical evaluation of health policy, health system organization, payment, and regulation, and prepares future public health leaders to understand and navigate the structural forces shaping access, cost, and quality of care in the U.S. health system.

Video: Bridging the Divide

Research Interests

• Heath services research
• Mental health
• Oral health disparities
• Oral-systemic relationship
• Dental informatics

Courses Taught

• PBHL-H325: Health Information Technology Management and Policy

Selected Publications

1. Taylor HL, Cuadros P^†, Gee M^†, Menachemi N. The unintended health effects of US COVID-19 lockdowns: a systematic review. Health Aff Sch. 2025 Oct 30;3(11):qxaf208. doi: 1093/haschl/qxaf208. PMID: 41245505; PMCID: PMC12612676.
2. Treat T, Jones D^†, Lorenzano N, Umberfield S^†, Bartels A, Schleyer T, Taylor H. Design characteristics of studies evaluating the effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment on systemic health outcomes. J Periodontol. 2025 Nov 19. doi: 1002/JPER.24-0847. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41259347.
3. Jones, D^† & Taylor, HL. State-level variation in Medicaid dental coverage for services beneficial to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. J Am Dent Assoc. 2024 Jul;155(7):630-635. doi: 1016/j.adaj.2024.04.010. Epub 2024 May 31.
4. Powell, T^†, Taylor, H. (2024). The relationship between self-reported poor mental health and complete tooth loss among the US adult population in 2019. Front Oral Health. 2024 Mar 28;5:1363982. doi: 3389/froh.2024.1363982. PMID: 38606312; PMCID: PMC11007132.
5. Taylor HL, Menachemi N, Holmes A, Sen B, Schleyer T, Blackburn J. The Relationship Between Dental Provider Density and Receipt of Dental Care Among Medicaid-enrolled Adults.J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2024;35(1):209-224. PMID: 38661867; PMCID: PMC11264445.
6. Taylor HL, Holmes AM, Menachemi N, Schleyer T, Sen B, Blackburn J. The relationship between preventive dental care and overall medical expenditures. Am J Manag Care. 2024 Feb 1;30(2):e39-e45. doi: 37765/ajmc.2024.89499. PMID: 38381547; PMCID: PMC11302381.
7. Taylor HL, Menachemi N, Gilbert A, Chaudhary J, Blackburn J. Economic Burden Associated With Untreated Mental Illness in Indiana. JAMA Health Forum. 2023 Oct 6;4(10):e233535. doi: 1001/jamahealthforum.2023.3535. PMID: 37831461; PMCID: PMC10576212.
8. Taylor HL, Sen B, Holmes AM, Schleyer T, Menachemi N, Blackburn J. Does preventive dental care reduce nonpreventive dental visits and expenditures among Medicaid-enrolled adults?Health Serv Res. 2022 Dec;57(6):1295-1302. doi: 1111/1475-6773.13987. Epub 2022 Apr 26. PMID: 35419826; PMCID: PMC9643079.
9. Yeager VA, Taylor HL, Menachemi N, Haut DP, Halverson PK, Vest JR. Primary Care Case Conferences to Mitigate Social Determinants of Health: A Case Study from One FQHC System. Am J Accountable Care. 2021 Dec;9(4):12-19. doi: 37765/ajac.2021.88802. Epub 2021 Dec 9. PMID: 37283888; PMCID: PMC10241440.
10. Bako AT, Taylor HL, Wiley K Jr, Zheng J, Walter-McCabe H, Kasthurirathne SN, Vest JR. Using natural language processing to classify social work interventions. Am J Manag Care. 2021 Jan 1;27(1):e24-e31. doi: 37765/ajmc.2021.88580. PMID: 33471465; PMCID: PMC8005360.
11. Taylor H, Holmes AM, Blackburn J. Prevalence of and factors associated with unmet dental need among the US adult population in 2016. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2021 Aug;49(4):346-353. doi: 1111/cdoe.12607. Epub 2020 Dec 4. PMID: 33274505; PMCID: PMC9721107.
12. Taylor HL, Apathy NC, Vest JR. Health information exchange use during dental visits. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2021 Jan 25;2020:1210-1219. PMID: 33936497; PMCID: PMC8075496.