Len Nichols

Len is leading a SHARE-funded project that will develop a strategy for measuring the impacts of health reform with respect to coverage expansion, delivery system reform, workforce development, and public health improvement by state. By convening state, academic and federal data experts, this project aims to develop guidance to states on how to use select measures to track and interpret progress and outcomes on a variety of fronts.

Professional Background

Len is currently at the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University, where he became Director on March 1, 2010.  Prior to that he was Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research institute based in Washington, D.C., from April 2005.  

Len has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication for over 17 years, and is one of the few analysts in Washington that maintains the respect and engagement of elected officials from both sides of the aisle. He frequently testifies before Congress and is actively involved in providing technical expertise to members of Congress, governors, state legislators, and other policy officials around the country. 

Len has consistently sought to add moral arguments to the health policy debate, which can become so technical – and distorted -- that it is easy to lose sight of why this issue is so important to real people and to our country. Because of his reputation as an honest and knowledgeable health reform analyst, he is frequently interviewed and quoted by major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Journal, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek magazines, National Public Radio, Lerher News Hour, the British Broadcasting Service, NBC Nightly News, ABC News Tonight, and CBS Evening News.

Additional Professional Roles

Before joining New America, Len was Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change and a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute.  Len was the Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the first two years of the Clinton Administration. From 1991-1992, Len was a visiting Public Health Service Fellow at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and prior to that he was an Associate Professor and Economics Department Chair at Wellesley College, where he taught from 1980-1991. 

Advisory Roles

Len served on Medicare’s Competitive Pricing Advisory Commission (CPAC) pursuant to the BBA, and he was a member of the 2001 Technical Review Panel for the Medicare Trustees Reports.   Len has also been an advisor to the World Bank and to the Pan American Health Organization.