Dr. Saunders is Senior Research Director, Health Care Transformation at Duke-Margolis. In this role, he oversees the Center's workstream on payment and delivery reform initiatives, including generating practical evidence on these reforms; translating that evidence into recommended solutions; and accelerating progress on implementing effective policy actions at the state, national, and international levels. The team includes portfolios focused on Medicare accountable care transformations, health care transformation for health equity and social needs, Medicaid and state health care transformation in North Carolina and other states, medically and socially underserved populations, and bolstering population health.

Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Dr. Saunders was a Senior Director and then Senior Advisor to the President of the National Quality Forum, where he managed a large federally-funded project that provided recommendations on more than 200 quality measures for 20 different federal programs in a period of two months as well as directing special projects. He was previously Senior Program Officer at the Institute of Medicine and managed health care legislative affairs for Representative Rush D. Holt during the Affordable Care Act debates.