Matthew Najarian is a first year PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Program at UAMS’s College of Pharmacy. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Seattle University and an MPH from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Matthew previously worked for the Center for Health Economics and Policy (CHEP) and was a Graduate Research Fellow. While at CHEP, Matthew spent time working on policy briefs for the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI). His past areas of research focus on rural and urban sources of insurance coverage and Medicaid MCO expansion policy. Matthew is a T-32 predoctoral trainee from the Arkansas Center for Health Disparities (ARCHD). While working for the Rural Telehealth Evaluation Center, Matthew hopes to focus his research on the ability for telehealth policy measures to alleviate disparities in health outcomes in rural areas.