Len M. Nichols is the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE) and a Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University. He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication with the media and policy makers for 20+ years, after he was Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Clinton Administration. Since that time he has testified frequently before Congress and state legislatures, published widely and spoken to a tremendous range of hospital associations, physician groups, and health policy forums around the country. After OMB Len was a Principle Research Associate at the Urban Institute, Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change, and Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation. In addition to his positions at GMU Len is on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and an advisor to the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Len was an advisor to the Virginia Health Reform Initiative and is now the payment reform advisor to the Virginia Center for Health Innovation as it leads Virginia’s State Innovation Model effort. As he has come to focus his research more on payment and delivery reform, Len was an Innovation Advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS, and is now the Principal Investigator on PCMH evaluation studies as well as more general ways to use payment and delivery reform to achieve triple aim and health equity goals. Len’s first job was teaching economics at Wellesley College from 1980-1991, where he became Associate Professor and Economics Department Chair, after receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1980.  Len got his B.A. from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and his M.A. in Economics from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.