WVU has a rich history of serving West Virginia as a land-grant institution, including long-standing collaborative activities with the many bureaus, divisions, and offices within the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)*.   

In 2017, WVU and DHHR formalized a nationally recognized state-university partnership to advance data-driven policy analysis and support the state’s advancement in health services program development, monitoring, and evaluation. In that same year, WVU joined AcademyHealth’s State-University Partnership Learning Network (SUPLN), a peer group that shares best practices related to state health policy and practice, particularly Medicaid services. 

WVU Health Affairs Institute is responsible for governing this state-university partnership. In addition to having a cadre of expert scientists and highly skilled professionals on staff, Health Affairs collaborates university-wide with affiliate faculty and staff across all WVU schools and departments. 

*On January 1, 2024, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) was officially reorganized into three separate departments in accordance with House Bill 2006: WV Department of Health, Department of Health Facilities, and Human Services.

The state-university partnership offers unique advantages:  

• WVU provides the in-state capacity to support DHHR in the critical areas of health data analytics, program evaluation, and implementation research.
• The partnership allows for student experiential learning through internships and assistantships focused on data-driven research and analysis to advance health policy decision making and program evaluation.
• Collaborations with expert scientists to identify research questions of importance to policymakers that we investigate through rigorous data analytics.
• The foundation of Health Affairs’ 100+ staff members allows it to execute professional-level program management bolstered by subject-area expertise.  
• The DHHR and WVU partnership results in cost savings for the state and in-state retention of our workforce.  

West Virginia exports too much of our most precious resource – our talent. According to the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research, the more academically accomplished the student, the more likely he or she is to leave the state, causing a “brain drain.”

Health Affairs provides a direct pipeline to our state’s higher education graduates. We give undergraduate and graduate students valuable experiential learning opportunities by partnering them with experts in their areas of study on diverse projects. We then provide competitive career options so they can remain in the Mountain State and thrive in the culture and communities they know so well. Through volunteer work, leadership, and philanthropic contributions, our graduates enrich the civic and economic lives of West Virginians.

It’s a win-win for all of us.