Alison Coates

Biography

My work focuses on structural urbanism in rural health. My academic interest in rurality and its impacts on health and health services took root when my partner, an Emergency Physician, began to work on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. Through him, I vicariously encountered the perils of rural practice and the challenges of health services delivery in rural and remote places.

When our family moved to Potsdam, NY, I began working in the local health system. I led the development of a new Clinical Research department that we founded with the goal of increasing access to state-of-the-art medical care in our rural area. At the time, it was one of very few rurally-based clinical research departments.

My interest in rural health is based on a fundamental belief that place of residence should not determine health outcomes, and that rural living should not consist of compromises that limit health and wellbeing.

While I worked at Canton-Potsdam Hospital, I learned so much more about the challenges of organizing health care in rural places like ours. I enrolled in a Healthcare MBA Program at Clarkson University where I focused on rural health applications of management principles. Upon graduation, I began to apply this knowledge as an Associate Vice President at Adirondack Health.

Today, I live and play with my partner and two teenage children in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York State. We take joy in the quiet, the ready access to outdoor recreation, and the many months of winter.

Education Background

PhD candidate, Management (Health Systems specialization), University of Ottawa

MBA, Healthcare Management, Clarkson University

MS, Healthcare Data Analytics, Clarkson University

BSc (Honours), Mount Allison University

Experience

I have held a variety of healthcare leadership roles during my career. I began working in the field of clinical research and eventually led the founding and early growth phases of a successful imaging core laboratory. Following a family move to the rural North Country region of New York, I led the establishment of a new clinical research program within St. Lawrence Health System. I was an Associate Vice President at Adirondack Health before being accepted to the PhD program at Telfer School of Management. While completing my MBA and MS degrees, I chose to focus on the rural context to understand how core management principles apply in rural health systems.

I currently serve as the President of the New York State Association for Rural Health and was a 2021 National Rural Health Association (NRHA) Rural Health Fellow.

Research Interests

My research focuses on rural health systems. In my work, I aim to challenge the dominant thinking on rural health challenges and disparities. Instead, I hope to question the assumptions upon which these deficit-oriented views are based and to suggest ways in which alternative points of view can be integrated into health services knowledge systems.

Throughout my research career, I hope to explore and expand our understanding of the ways in which structural urbanism impacts rural health. Structural urbanism refers to the idea that urban assumptions, norms, and conditions are built into the foundations and structures of our health system. Rural organizations and communities deviate from these assumed (urban) norms to varying degrees, which complicates their efforts to sustainably and equitably deliver health care services.

Awards

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program Doctoral Scholarship (CGS-D) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Publications

Rural New York State Diversity and Opportunity: A Chartbook
P Fahey, A Scott, A Coates
New York State Association for Rural Health, 2025

Rural Health Reimagined: Policy Support & Change for Rural Aging in New York
S Gorman, M Wendland, A Coates
New York State Association for Rural Health, 2025

The Impact of Rural Hospital Closures and Mergers on Health System Ecologies: A Scoping Review
A Coates, J Probst, K Sarwal, S Riaz, A Grudniewicz
Medical Care Research and Review, 10775587251355671 1, 2025

“This Stuff Matters:” Healthcare Leaders and Meaningfulness at Work
M DePuccio, A Coates, B Auxier, E Sullivan
Academy of Management Proceedings 2025 (1), 23031, 2025

Decision threshold models in medical decision making: a scoping literature review
A Scarffe, A Coates, K Brand, W Michalowski
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 24 (1), 273 8, 2024

Effects of guaranteed basic income interventions on poverty‐related outcomes in high‐income countries: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
A Rizvi, M Kearns, M Dignam, A Coates, MK Sharp, O Magwood, ...
Campbell Systematic Reviews 20 (2), e1414 9, 2024

Emergency responses for a health workforce under pressure: Lessons learned from system responses to the first wave of the pandemic in Canada
A Coates, M Mihailescu, IL Bourgeault
The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 39 (3), 906-9161, 2024

The use and role of digital technology in learning health systems: A scoping review
A Coates, AQH Chung, L Lessard, A Grudniewicz, C Espadero, Y Gheidar, ...
International Journal of Medical Informatics 178, 105196 10, 2023

Approaches to decision threshold models in medical decision-making: A scoping review protocol
A Scarffe, A Coates
OSF, 2023

Mental Health Workforce Shortage in Rural New York State
G Forlenza, A Coates
New York State Association for Rural Health, 2023

Centralization and innovation: Competing priorities for health systems?
AD Scarffe, A Coates, JM Evans, A Grudniewicz
The International journal of health planning and management 37 (5), 2534-2541 19, 2022