David Mechanic is the René Dubos University Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His research and writing deal with social aspects of health and health care.

David Mechanic received his Ph.D. from Stanford and joined the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1960, where he was chair of the department of sociology (1968-1970), the John Bascom Professor of Sociology (1973-1979) and director of the Center for Medical Sociology and Health Services Research (1972-1979). He moved to Rutgers University in 1979, was dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (1980-1984), directed the NIMH Center at Rutgers for Research on the Organization and Financing of Care for the Severely Mentally Ill (1988-2004) and established the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research (1985) which he directs. He also serves as the Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program.

Dr. Mechanic is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He has served on numerous panels of the National Academy of Sciences, federal agencies and non-profit organizations.

David Mechanic has received many awards including the Institute of Medicine's 2009 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health and 2008 Adam Yarmolinsky Award, the Health Services Research Prize from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration and the Baxter Allegiance Foundation, the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Association for Health Services Research, the Rema Lapouse Award and the First Carl Taube Award for Distinguished Contributions to Mental Health Services Research from the American Public Health Association, and the Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology, Distinguished Medical Sociologist Award and Lifetime Contributions Award in Mental Health from the American Sociological Association. He also received the Benjamin Rush Award (and Lecture) from the American Psychiatric Association (2004) and was selected for the Inaugural Lecture and Award in the Behavioral and Social Sciences honoring Matilda White Riley at the NIH (2006). He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Lynn Rogut, Deputy Director of the RWJF Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research, is located at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers. She is responsible for the operations and marketing of the program, coordinating the application review and selection process, monitoring the program's research portfolio and progress of awardees, communicating with Foundation staff and investigators, convening, and helping to disseminate the work of the investigators.

Ms. Rogut has 30 years of health care experience in planning and implementing a broad range of services and managing complex projects in complex environments. Before joining the Investigator Awards Program, Ms. Rogut spent six years as executive director of the New York Center for Liver Transplantation, Inc., a consortium of the six liver transplant centers in New York State. Her responsibilities included peer review activities, quality monitoring, and information sharing. In an earlier position at the United Hospital Fund, a health care policy and research organization, Ms. Rogut directed a survey research project on patient experiences involving 15 New York City hospitals and over 3,000 patients.

Cynthia Church serves as Program Administrator for the Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program. She is a seasoned administrator who provides general administrative and organizational support to the program and works closely with the investigators, Lynn Rogut, deputy director, and David Mechanic, Ph.D., national program director. Her responsibilities include processing and tracking grant applications and awards, implementing the program's marketing plan, providing technical assistance to applicants and awardees, maintaining the program database and mailing lists, planning and managing meetings, preparing reports and materials, negotiating with vendors, making travel arrangements, and communicating with advisory committee members, investigators, Foundation representatives, and University constituents.