Lunch Plenary | The next four years of social care research and policy
Monday, February 3, 2025 |
11:45 AM - 1:15 PM |
Pacific AB |
Stuart Butler
Scholar in Residence
Brookings
Panelist
Biography
Stuart Butler PhD is a scholar in residence in Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution. He is also a visiting fellow and board member at the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Most recently his work centers on social determinants of health and aging.
Len Nichols
Non-Resident Fellow, Health Policy Center
Urban Institute
Virtual Panelist
Biography
Len M. Nichols is a Non-Resident Fellow in the Health Policy Center of the Urban Institute. He was the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE) and Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University from 2010-2020. He is the President of NS Ideas, LLC, a health policy research and consulting partnership with his wife, Nora Super. He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication with the media and policy makers for almost 30 years, after he was Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the first two years of the Clinton Administration. Through testimony, publications, public speaking and technical advice, Len has helped shape the opinions of policy makers, researchers, journalists and policy analysts. He has consistently sought to add moral arguments to the technical health policy debate.
After OMB, Len was a Principal 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, before moving to George Mason. Len served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance from 2008-2021. Len was an advisor to the Virginia Health Reform Initiative from 2010-2013 and an Innovation Advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS in 2012. Len served on the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), which advises the Secretary of HHS on Alternative Payment Models, from 2015-2019. Len’s research focus now is on incentivizing collaborative financing of social determinants of health. Len’s first professional 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 an M.A. in Economics from the University of Arkansas. He was born and raised in Star City, Arkansas, in Lincoln County. He now lives in New Orleans.
Anand Shah
Vice President
Kaiser Permanente
Moderator
Biography
Under Dr. Shah’s leadership, Kaiser Permanente standardized social health screenings now being delivered to a growing number of patients through a range of new modalities. He supported the development of a robust national network of community-based organizations working with Kaiser Permanente to deliver social services and other assistance to members.
He provided oversight for the launch of the Kaiser Permanente Community Support Hub, a national support center dedicated to helping members meet their basic needs, and supported creation of the Kaiser Permanente Food Is Medicine Center of Excellence, which expands screenings for food insecurity, clinical nutrition education, and research to enhance food-based interventions in care delivery.
