Megan E Shepherd-Banigan
Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences

Dr. Megan Shepherd-Banigan is an Assistant Professor in The Department of Population Health Science, Duke University School of Medicine. She is also a Research Scientist in Health Services Research and Development in Primary Care at the Durham Veteran’s Administration. Dr. Shepherd-Banigan’s mental interests in mental health, aging, and health services research methods focus on improving the health, emotional and social function of adults with mental and physical health disabilities and their family members. She studies how to integrate family members into the health system through support for family caregivers and through family-centered innovations in health care. She is also interested in how parental disability and caregiving affects the health of children living in the household.  From a methodological perspective, she focuses on how to creatively and rigorously combine empirical approaches to address methodologically challenging research questions in health systems and policy research. 

Dr. Shepherd-Banigan is the recipient of a VA Career Development Award (2019-2023) to examine family-centered approaches to strengthen family member support for veterans under-going treatment for traumatic stress. She is a co-investigator on the VA-Cares Evaluation Center at the Durham VA ADAPT which is evaluating caregiver support programs offered under the VA Caregiver Support Program. As part of this effort, she is leading a project to survey family caregivers of Vietnam-era veterans who might become eligible for expanded support services under the VA Mission Act. She is also co-investigator on the NIA/NIH CARE IDEAS R01 study examining outcomes among care partners and persons with cognitive impairment and dementia (Terri Wetle, PI). As part of this project she has examined patient/caregiver communication and drivers of long-term care considerations. Dr. Shepherd-Banigan is also leading a project with the Rosalyn Carter Foundation to examine the effects of a caregiver training program on child anxiety.


Areas of Expertise: Health Services Research, Health Policy, and Health Economics

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