Len M Nichols
LEN M. NICHOLS, PhD
DIRECTOR, THE CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH AND ETHICS
Len M. Nichols became Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE) and a Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University on March 1, 2010. As he works to strengthen CHPRE’s connections to national, state, and private sector conversations about ways to improve the performance, sustainability, and equity of the US health care system, he continues to bridge the worlds of health policy, health politics, health economics, health services research, and to help make sense of it all for policy makers, private sector leaders, other researchers, and journalists. Len’s most recent prior position was Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, where he contributed to the national health reform debate through testimony, briefings, writing, news commentary, and public speaking. He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication for over 18 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. In addition to testimony Len often is asked to provide technical expertise to members of Congress, governors, state legislators, and other policy officials around the country. He has consistently sought to add moral arguments to the technical health policy debate, and in so doing helps journalists and others remember why the issue is so important to our country. Because of his reputation as an unbiased 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.
Len has served as Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute and during the first two years of the Clinton Administration, the Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Len was also a visiting Public Health Service Fellow at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research during 1991-1992, and prior to that he was an Associate Professor and Economics Department Chair at Wellesley College, where he taught from 1980-1991.
Research Interests
- Health economics and health services research for health system stakeholders and clinical leaders, elected and appointed policy officials, and journalists
Education
- Ph.D., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980
- M.S., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1978
- M.A., Economics, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, 1976
- B.A., Economics and Business, Hendrix College, Conway, AK, 1975
Publications and Presentations
Contact Len M. Nichols
George Mason University
College of Health and Human Services
Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics
MSN: 2D7
4400 University Dr
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
Office: Robinson B378D
Phone: 703-993-9490
Email
