Powering Change
The USC Schaeffer Institute helps shape creative policy solutions to pressing national and global challenges through rigorous, independent research and close engagement with public and private-sector leaders. Founded in 2024, the Institute brings together two flagship programs: the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, recognized as one of the nation’s leading health policy centers, and the Leonard D. Schaeffer Fellows in Government Service, which provides undergraduate students with an informed view of government through paid internships.
Building on the successes of these longstanding programs, the Institute will serve as a policy laboratory to develop and test ideas generated by the USC academic community while providing a forum to reach federal policymakers. The first of these new programs is the Behavioral Science & Policy Initiative, which conducts research on people’s beliefs and behaviors to help craft more effective policies and communication strategies.
About Leonard Schaeffer
Leonard D. Schaeffer is one of the most accomplished leaders in American healthcare, with a career that spans the private, public and philanthropic sectors. He was the founding chairman and CEO of WellPoint, then the nation’s largest health benefits company by membership, and earlier he was the administrator of the federal Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) with responsibility for the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid programs. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, serves as the chair of the USC Health System Board and is vice chair of the Board of Trustees at the Brookings Institution. He also served on the boards of numerous business, philanthropic and professional organizations.
Our DC Campus
Our proximity to the heart of national policymaking provides our scholars with greater opportunity to shape critical debates. The Schaeffer Institute’s DC headquarters at the USC Capital Campus expands our national reach, enabling our scholars to more easily collaborate with decision-makers to advance evidence-based solutions.
