About Us: Executive Leadership

E. Richard Brown, PhD
Director, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Professor, UCLA School of Public Health
Principal Investigator, CHIS

E. Richard Brown, PhD, is the director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; he is also a professor in the Department of Health Services and the Department of Community Health Sciences in the UCLA School of Public Health. Brown founded the Center in 1994. It has since become one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information and analysis on California's population. The Center conducts research on a wide range of health issues and provides extensive public service to policy makers, advocates and the media.

Brown's research and publications focus on health insurance coverage, the lack of coverage and the effects on access of public policies and economic and market conditions. His work and other studies by the Center's researchers have been used by California's governors, legislative leaders and advocates in crafting health care legislation, policies and programs.

Brown is the principal investigator for the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey. CHIS provides statewide and local-level estimates for California's diverse population and covers a broad range of health topics, including health status and conditions, health disparities, health insurance and access to health care.

Brown also has been extensively involved in the analysis and development of public policies, with particular emphasis on national health care reform. He has served as a senior health policy advisor to the Barack Obama for President Campaign, as health policy advisor to three members of the United States Senate and as a full-time senior consultant to President Clinton's Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Brown is a past president of the American Public Health Association. He received his PhD in sociology of education from the University of California, Berkeley.