He is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar. His research focuses on the effects of policy and organizational factors on nursing practice and health outcomes. At Penn, he is a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Center for Public Health Initiatives. McHugh was a Fulbright Scholar with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. He received his PhD in nursing from Penn, his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and his JD from the Northeastern University School of Law.