by Guest Author | Jul 16, 2025 | Data, News, Policy
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Brittany Daulton to Associate Director. Dr. Daulton has served as a Faculty Fellow at the Bowen Center since 2023, where she has contributed significantly to research and policy initiatives aimed at strengthening Indiana’s health workforce.
In her new role, Dr. Daulton will help lead the Bowen Center’s strategic direction, support stakeholder engagement, and advance data-driven policy development. Her background in evaluation science, research methodology, and translation position her well to help guide the Bowen Center’s mission of informing policy and aligning initiatives to improve health outcomes across Indiana.
This promotion reflects Dr. Daulton’s dedication to interdisciplinary collaboration, evidence-based research, and public service. The Bowen Center looks forward to her continued leadership in addressing the complex challenges facing Indiana’s health workforce.
Follow the links below to learn more about Dr. Daulton.
LinkedIn
IU Faculty Page
by Guest Author | Jul 16, 2025 | Policy
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy’s latest brief offers a compelling look at the evolving landscape of online education within Indiana University’s mental and behavioral health (MBH) programs.
The brief evaluates how online learning is shaping student success and workforce development across Indiana. With a focus on enrollment trends, geographic reach, academic performance, and degree completion, the findings underscore the growing role of online programs in meeting the state’s urgent need for qualified MBH professionals.
The brief also highlights how these programs are attracting more Indiana residents and rural students, offering flexible pathways to education while supporting in-state workforce retention.
Read more below.
by Guest Author | Jul 16, 2025 | Policy
At the Bowen Center, we’re proud to collaborate with partners across the state who are driving meaningful change in health workforce development. Our long-standing partnership with the Indiana Department of Health includes providing administrative support to the new Health Workforce Council, an initiative focused on building a more coordinated and responsive health workforce strategy for Indiana.
In this guest blog, Brooke Mullen, Executive Director of the Health Workforce Council, shares how this effort is shaping the future of the health workforce in our state.
In 2024, Indiana launched the Health Workforce Council as a partnership between the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) and the Family & Social Services Administration (FSSA). The council is the result of a recommendation from then-Gov. Eric J. Holcomb’s Public Health Commission.
The council, chaired by State Health Commissioner Lindsay Weaver, MD, FACEP, brings together state government representatives and other stakeholders who are focused on practical and innovative solutions to grow the health workforce capacity of our state.
I have the privilege of serving as executive director for the council, joining IDOH in November 2023 for this role. I have worked in state government for 16 years, previously with the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA).
The council’s mission is to create and lead an integrated and intentional framework for strengthening the health workforce within our state. To do this, the council works to coordinate initiatives and leverage existing programs throughout the state, seeks to expand recruitment, training, placement, and retention of health workforce into areas of need, and to identify and collaborate on incentive programs and strategies to target those areas of need.
In establishing the council, our approach was to bring together a group of individuals who could represent broad areas of subject matter expertise and experience themselves but also have a larger network to include in some of these important conversations. The council is comprised of members of the executive and legislative branches of state government, but primarily represents clinicians, educators, and employers throughout our state. Our intention is to get a “boots on the ground” perspective of experiences.
During the spring of 2024, IDOH, in conjunction with the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Policy and Research, hosted a day-long Health Workforce Summit and conducted a Health Workforce Survey with stakeholders representing more than 45 organizations, including healthcare employers, educators, professional associations, and state government. Through these initiatives, priority topics were identified and include behavioral and mental health, obstetrics, and family medicine and pediatrics.
The council meets on a quarterly basis, and meetings are open to the public. For more information, check out our website at https://www.in.gov/health/directory/office-of-the-commissioner/health-workforce-council/.
by Guest Author | May 14, 2025 | News, Policy
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy is delighted to announce that our organization has received a significant grant to develop national recommendations for strengthening the behavioral health and substance use workforce.
The $592,338 award from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) will fund a comprehensive 50-state policy review and stakeholder engagement process aimed at creating a first-of-its-kind national framework for behavioral health paraprofessional roles.
Hannah Maxey, center, pictured at a Playbook Project stakeholder convening. | Photo by Daiyawn Smith/Dai in Dai Out Productions
“This framework aims to address the critical gap in service access for individuals suffering from opioid use disorder by recommending best practices for training, credentialing and reimbursement based on lessons learned from states with formalized roles,” said Bowen Center Director Hannah L. Maxey, PhD, MPH, RDH.
The grant was one of only four awarded through FORE’s Innovation Challenge Program, which supports new solutions to difficult issues related to the opioid and overdose crisis.
This initiative builds upon the Bowen Center’s Playbook for Enhancing Indiana’s Mental and Behavioral Health Workforce, published in 2024 with support from Lilly Endowment Inc., keeping the ball rolling on mental and behavioral health workforce research.
The Bowen Center will release more details about this exciting project in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned!
For more information, visit: https://medicine.iu.edu/news/2025/05/bowen-center-fore-grant-lilly-endowment
For more information about our past work on this topic, check out the Playbook project below or go to the project homepage. You can also see our full portfolio of past large-scale projects on our dedicated Portfolio page here.
by Guest Author | May 8, 2025 | Data, News, Policy, Reports
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy at Indiana University is pleased to share its interim report to the Indiana Department of Health covering activities from July 2024 through January 2025.
This report provides an overview of the Center’s efforts to support data-driven health workforce planning and policy across Indiana and highlights ongoing initiatives which focus on health workforce data collection, analysis, and stakeholder collaboration. The report also reflects the Center’s continued commitment to producing actionable insights and engaging key partners to inform health workforce development and decision-making.
Through its work, the Bowen Center aims to ensure that Indiana’s health workforce is aligned with the needs of communities statewide. This interim report is intended to provide transparency on progress to date. We invite you to review the full report below to learn more.
by Guest Author | May 1, 2025 | Policy
The 2025 legislative session has come to an end! This marks the 7th year the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy has tracked health workforce legislation through the Bowen Bill Brief (B3). Many changes were implemented this year, including a redesign of the B3 to include more interactive graphics and regular social media and blog posts. Additionally, this year the Bowen Center created several rapid response briefs to elevate national and state health workforce data into relevant policy discussions. The Bowen Center remains committed to informing health workforce policy that advances health and finding novel ways to support stakeholders invested in the state of Indiana.
As of April 29, 2025, of the almost 300 bills related to health, health workforce or workforce introduced this session, 15 have become public law or are awaiting governor action. Keep reading to see which health workforce bills became law.
Nursing Workforce
Looking at the nursing workforce, Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 176 has been signed by the Governor and is now public law. This modifies the membership of the Board of Nursing housed at the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. Two membership positions have been added, including one for an individual serving in a nurse faculty role. SEA 176 also modifies the educational requirements for licensed practical nurse (LPN) training. Prior to SEA 176, individuals were required to provide proof of high school graduation or equivalency prior to enrollment in an in LPN training program. SEA 176 extends the time when people are required to provide this documentation from prior to enrollment to prior to LPN training program completion. This opens LPN training pipeline to students completing high school coursework. The Bowen Center produced a brief this session showing that demand for licensed practical nurses in Indiana is outpacing our current supply. For more information, check out the blog post about it.
Another bill with several impacts on the nursing workforce is SB 473, which is currently awaiting Governor action. This bill may be considered an “omnibus” bill in that there are several measures outlined within it impacting several topics. SB 473 establishes the Certified Health Care Professions Commission housed at the Indiana Department of Health. The Commission will make determinations regarding the issuance of credentials and regulation of training for certified nurse aides (CNAs), qualified medication aides, and home health aides. SB 473 also includes provisions modifying clinical experience requirements for nursing programs. Upon enactment of SB 473, nursing programs will be required to offer clinical experiences in at least one hospital and one health care facility. We produced another rapid response brief on this topic this session which showed how other states handle regulation of CNAs. The interactive blog has additional details.
Physician Workforce
Several bills passed that will impact the physician workforce. SB 475, currently awaiting Governor Action, modifies regulations related to physician noncompete agreements. As defined in the bill, physician noncompete agreements are contracts that restrict a physician’s ability to practice medicine in a geographic area for a period of time after the end of employment. The bill prohibits physicians and hospitals, including their parent companies and affiliated managers, from entering noncompete agreements starting July 1, 2025.
In addition to SB 475, HB 1555 has passed through the legislature and is awaiting Governor action as of the time of writing. HB 1555 establishes a limited medical license for individuals who have graduated from certain international medical programs, obtained a healthcare facility sponsor in an underserved area, and met other criteria. This license allows recipients to practice medicine with a written collaborative agreement with a supervising physician at a healthcare facility in an underserved area. Provisions for revoking the limited license and conversion to an unlimited medical license are also outlined. This new licensure pathway for certain international medical graduates may help augment Indiana’s medical education pipeline to practice. The Bowen Center completed several research reports on Indiana’s medical pipeline and how it compares to other states. This research showed that Indiana is falling behind in capacity of medical students and residents but leading the way in retaining medical students and residents who train here.
Behavioral Health
When we look at behavioral health, SEA 462 has been signed by the Governor and is now public law. SEA 462 modifies the definition of a practitioner as it relates to behavior analysts while the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency prepares to implement licensure for these professionals.
Additionally, SB 216 has passed both chambers and is awaiting Governor’s action. This bill removes language requiring individuals take the first available licensure examination after graduation and requires an associate license to earn clinical experience hours for individuals seeking licensure as marriage and family therapists, clinical addiction counselors, addiction counselors, or mental health counselors. Confusion around testing and hours earning were frequent topics of stakeholder discussion during the Playbook Project, which included recommendations for strengthening the behavioral health workforce.
Direct Care Workforce
There are several conditions which would disqualify an individual from employment in a health care facility, including a recent felony conviction involving controlled substances. House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1385 provides an exception to this disqualification if the individual is certified as a peer recovery coach and the conviction meets other criteria.
Oral Health Workforce
For the oral health workforce, HB 1031 has passed both chambers and is currently awaiting action from the Governor. This bill modifies the members of the Board of Dentistry and specifies the American Association of Dental Boards as the association the board may participate in. The bill also allows dentists to delegate authority for x-ray imaging to dental assistants in certain correctional settings and cleans up regulation referring to dentists.
It has been an exciting legislative session with a significant focus on health workforce-related bills! The final status of all health workforce related bills can be tracked using the Bowen Bill Brief. The Bowen Center will continue to track all Health Workforce related bills in 2026. Let us know if you have thoughts or want to connect!
