At the Intersection of Research and Lived Experience: the Personal and Professional Journey of Research Scientist, Patrick Hibbard

There’s lived experience…and there’s lived experience. Patrick Hibbard, Assistant Research Scientist at Chestnut Health Systems, has had anything but a conventional career path. Patrick shares his journey, from incarceration to his current role with Chestnut, and how his background inspires and informs his work. We discuss:    How he uses econometrics and quantitative methods in evaluating public health interventions.  The challenges of causal inference in public health research and the need for quantitative data to measure community-level impacts. The need to balance research with lived experience.  The effectiveness of drug courts and their evolution (while drug courts can be effective, they may not always be the best approach, especially where there are structural inequities in policing).  The connections between/among different organizations in the recovery ecosystem.  What’s ultimately so compelling about Patrick’s story is how he’s used it in combination with data-driven insights to increase community-level impacts, improve public health…and save lives.