Colin Planalp is a researcher at SHADAC, part of the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. He specializes in state health policy, with a focus on helping states identify and use data to inform policy decisions. Mr. Planalp conducts research and provides technical assistance to state and federal agencies on health policy topics such as innovative approaches to Medicaid expansion via 1115 waivers; multi-payer quality measure alignment as a strategy for supporting payment reform; and trends of increasing suicide rates nationally and across the states. He also studies the national opioid crisis, monitoring both rapidly evolving trends in the types of substances driving overdose deaths and state-level variation in the issues of the epidemic. Mr. Planalp has more than 10 years of experience in health policy and health communications. He holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.