Maria Alva is a health economist with over a decade of research experience. Maria is an Assistant Research Professor at the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University. Before that, she worked as a federal contractor for the IMPAQ International Health Division as a Senior Research Associate and RTI International as a health economist. Maria’s work has involved impact evaluations of programs addressing chronic disease prevention at the state and local levels. Maria started her career at the University of Oxford, where her research focused on economic analyses of the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study— a landmark trial of policies to improve type 2 diabetes management. Maria’s work has had a significant policy impact. For example, spending estimates from the evaluation of the YMCA DPP informed CMS’ policy — Medicare included the Diabetes Prevention Program as a covered benefit in 2018. Maria’s work has been published in leading field journals such as Health Affairs, Health Economics, Health Services Research, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Diabetic Medicine.