Michele Thornton

Michele Thornton attended Illinois Wesleyan University for her undergraduate studies in Psychology. After that, Michele returned to her hometown of Chicago, IL to complete her M.B.A. in Health Sector Management at DePaul University in 2010. Michele then went on to her doctoral studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago – School of Public Health in Health Policy and Administration. She enjoys teaching both in person and online – classes ranging from Health Insurance & Employee Benefits, Health Economics, Health Policy and Public Health Administration.

Before joining SUNY Oswego in 2017, Michele worked as a health insurance and employee benefits consultant, focused on the small business and individual sector. In addition to continuing this work with small employers, Michele enjoys tackling independent health policy consulting & training engagements. Recent projects include: The Small Business Health Collaborative with Health & Disability Advocates; Developing and delivering the ACA Navigator Certification program for Get Covered Illinois; and an appointment to the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) National Legislative Council.

Research

Dr. Thornton’s early research focused on the marketing, communication rollout, implementation and impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on health disparities, management, utilization and key health outcomes. She has continued to expand that work into examining the role of health insurance brokers in the small employers, tracking patterns of medical and pharmaceutical tourism and most recently developing ethical decision-making frameworks for employers to employ during pandemics.