Els Houtsmuller

Els Houtsmuller is the Program Director for RTI’s Evidence to Practice Program. She also heads up RTI’s portfolio development for Public Health and contributes to various ongoing evidence synthesis projects. Dr. Houtsmuller is subject matter expert in Mental/Behavioral Health, Health Equity, Suicide Prevention, Substance Use, and Health Systems.

Before joining RTI, Dr. Houtsmuller was an Associate Director at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) where she oversaw the Congress-mandated research on maternal mortality, including topic identification and development, stakeholder outreach and engagement, and development of funding announcements.

Dr. Houtsmuller is a senior health research and policy professional and has been in leading roles in academia, health technology assessment, and health research funding organizations; her experience includes research (pre-clinical, clinical, and comparative effectiveness research); evidence synthesis/health technology assessment (HTA); grant/contract development and management; topic prioritization and advancement for development of funding announcements; and stakeholder engagement.