Tricia Johnson, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Health Systems Management at Rush University. Her primary scientific interest is in understanding the economic drivers of health care spending. She is one of very few human milk economists in the world and specializes in the economics and cost effectiveness of human milk feedings to premature infants. Additionally, she leads the economic evaluation of multiple research studies with the goal of identifying strategies that are cost effective for improving health outcomes and reducing costs to society. Johnson is the research director for the US Cooperative for International Patient Programs, a membership program of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. She co-developed a national benchmarking survey of international patient programs within U.S. hospitals, now in its eighth year of implementation. In 2009, she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Austria, where she worked with faculty at the Vienna University for Economics and Business on research evaluating trends in cross-border and international medical travel. Johnson is the executive director of Building Healthy Urban Communities, a five-year, $5 million initiative, funded by BMO Harris Bank, focused on health care workforce development and new models of care.