Ambassador

Erin McGaffigan

Collective Insight - Founder/Owner
University of Massachusetts Boston Gerontology - Fellow

State: Massachusetts
Stakeholder Type: Researcher
Erin McGaffigan Headshot

Erin McGaffigan is the founder of Collective Insight and a Research & Policy Fellow at the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston. She received a Master of Science in Public Policy from the UMass, Boston, and a Master’s in Social Work from Boston College. She received her PhD from the UMass, Boston, where she focused her dissertation research on the complex factors and related outcomes of stakeholder engagement practices in Cash & Counseling programs.

Erin has spent her career creating feasible and meaningful engagement strategies to ensure people with lived experience inform public policies, programs, and research. Currently, she is a National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) National Technical Assistance Provider for six states to inform their engagement of individuals with lived experience in systems transformation. She has 19 years of experience designing and improving community-based long-term services and supports for people with a range of disabilities and lived experiences. Her expertise includes transformation of HCBS systems; research on consumer advisory committee practices; development of participant direction models; creation of innovative peer support strategies; and engagement of cross-disability, cross-aging advocacy groups in policy design and research. She has engaged individuals with lived experience in a range of aging and disability-related projects, including strategic planning, program evaluation, and emergency preparedness, as well as in the design of quality measures and training tools.

Erin recently led a successful PCORI-funded four-part virtual seminar series on stakeholder engagement for researchers as well as a PCORI-funded Symposium which brought together researchers and older adults to expand opportunities for engaged research. She is currently Co-PI on the PCORI-funded Aging PCOR Learning Collaborative intended to increase the readiness of researchers to infuse PCOR concepts in their research on aging.

Involvement with PCORI

Engagement Awards: Sages' Symposium to Expand Researcher Readiness - Co-Investigator (Co-I) Engagement Awards: Aging PCOR Learning Collaborative - Co-Investigator (Co-I)

Ambassador Interests

Health Conditions Health Conditions These are the broad terms we use to categorize our funded research studies; specific diseases or conditions are included within the appropriate larger category. Note: not all of our funded projects focus on a single disease or condition; some touch on multiple diseases or conditions, research methods, or broader health system interventions. Such projects won’t be listed by a primary disease/condition and so won’t appear if you use this filter tool to find them. View Glossary
Populations Populations PCORI is interested in research that seeks to better understand how different clinical and health system options work for different people. These populations are frequently studied in our portfolio or identified as being of interest by our stakeholders. View Glossary
Research Phases
Stakeholder Types
State State The state where the project originates, or where the primary institution or organization is located. View Glossary

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