Leadership Team and Consulting Staff

Dwayne A. Banks, Ph.D.

Dwayne Banks is Founder and CEO of Health and Social Sector Analysis, LLC (HSSA). Dr. Banks received his B.S. degree in chemistry and B.A. degree in economics from the University of California at Irvine and Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. A university professor, former business school dean, vice provost, and public policy professor, Dr. Banks has been a practicing economist for more than three decades and has consulted for both private and public sector organizations. He specializes in econometrics, big data analytics, university budget planning, health care financing and hospital and physician payment systems. His scientific research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Health Economics, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Journal of the American Dental Association, Applied Economics, the International Journal of the Economics of Business, the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics, the Health Matrix Journal of Law-Medicine and the Journal of Industry Competition and Trade.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com

Abeer E. Handal-Banks, O.D., M.S.

Abeer Handal-Banks is Executive Vice President of HSSA. An optometrist by training, Dr. Handal-Banks has over 30 years of experience as a health care provider and clinical researcher. She received her B.S. degree in biology and medical technology from the University of Jordan, M.S. degree in computer information systems and security from Our Lady of the Lake University (San Antonio), and doctorate degree in optometry from the University of Houston. She is licensed to practice optometry in the state of Texas, and is fluent in written and spoken Arabic.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com

Jeanne L. Wendel, Ph.D.

Jeanne Wendel, Principal Consultant, has been a professional economist for more than 30 years. Dr. Wendel specializes in health care regulation, quality improvement and performance measurement systems. As a professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno she has published extensively in various areas of health care economics and public sector regulatory policies. She received her B.A. in economics and history from Rice University and Ph.D. degree in economics from Southern Methodist University. Dr. Wendel has extensive domestic and international experience as a health policy expert.

Dr. Wendel's scientific research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, Applied Economics, the Economic Bulletin, International Journal of Health Care Economics and Finance, Health Economics, Disease Management, the Journal of Labor Research, and the American Journal of Medical Quality.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com

Sunkar Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D.

Dr. Mukhopadhyay received his B.S. degree in economics from the University of Calcutta, M.S. in quantitative economics from the Indian Statistical Institute, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in econometrics, health care economics, health care finance and health care labor markets. He is an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, Germany. Dr. Mukhopadhyay's scientific research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the Review of Economics of Households (forthcoming), IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Public Works Management, the Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, the Social Science Quarterly, Demography, Applied Economics, and the journal of Quantitative Economics.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com

Belinda L. Reyes, Ph.D.

Dr. Reyes received her B.S. degree in economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. She specializes in labor market behavior and regulation, demography and population migration patterns. Dr. Reyes is a former fellow at the University of Michigan and visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She formally served as an economics professor at San Francisco State University, Director of the Cesar E. Chavez Institute, and adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Dr. Reye's scientific research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the International Migration Review, the Social Science Quarterly, Population Research and Policy Review, and the journal of Communities & Banking. Dr. Reyes is fluent in written and spoken Spanish.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com

Yara A. Halasa-Rappel, DDM, Ph.D.

Dr. Halasa-Rappel, Principal Consultant, received her D.D.M. in dentistry from Aleppo University (Syria), her M.S. degree in international health care management, economics and policy from Bocconi University (Italy), M.S. degree in international health policy and management, M.A. degree in social policy and Ph.D. degree in social policy and management, each from Brandeis University. She is the author of several scholar articles in the areas of health services research, cost of illness modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis. She currently serves a biostatistics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Chan Medical School. Dr. Halasa-Rappel has extensive experience consulting for domestic and international health organizations. She is fluent in written and spoken Arabic and French.

email: consult@hssanalysis.com