Shira Hornstein

PhD Candidate in Health Policy (G3, Political Analysis)

Shira Hornstein is a student in the MD-PhD program at Harvard Medical School. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2021 with dual BAs in Government and Biology. During her undergraduate studies, Shira worked on diverse research projects, including epidemiological work on breastfeeding and pollutants, the genetics of Idiopathic Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism, and political polarization of public health crises. Before starting her MD-PhD in 2022, Shira spent a gap year at MGH’s Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Center, studying the effects of home care and palliative-care interventions on cancer outcomes for patients with advanced disease. As a graduate student, Shira works with Thomas Tsai, MD, MPH on hospital pricing and private equity ownership and Laura Garabedian, MPH, PhD on maternal and reproductive health policy. Shira is a 2026 summer fellow at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, working on capacity assessments of the Commonwealth’s service lines. Shira is interested in how policy change affects patient outcomes and hospital finances and how politics affect public opinion and patient care.