The University of Texas at Austin

Ben Sasse served as U.S. assistant secretary of health and human services from 2007 to 2009. Nominated by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Democratic Senate to the fourth-ranking position in the government's largest-budget agency, Sasse led policy, planning, and research functions across the Department's eleven operating divisions, with a special focus on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Food and Drug Administration.

He teaches public policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and is a Visiting Scholar in the Economic Studies program at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings. His current research looks at efforts to modernize payment systems in American health care, to eventually migrate from "paying for more" to "paying for better" in ways that will stimulate entrepreneurial innovation from doctors, hospitals, and adjacent industries. Previously, he served as a chief of staff in the U.S. House of Representatives and as the chief of staff of the Office of Legal Policy, the internal think-tank of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sasse began his career with the Boston Consulting Group and has advised a wide variety of organizations at moments of strategic crisis – working with airlines, utilities, manufacturers, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the government of Iraq, and a number of nonprofit and educational institutions.

He was educated at Harvard, Oxford, and St. John's (Annapolis) before receiving his Ph.D. from Yale, where his dissertation on domestic politics during the Cold War won the Theron Rockwell Field and the George Washington
Egleston Prizes.

Education

Ph.D., Yale University (doctoral dissertation on conservative politics during the Cold War won both the Theron Rockwell Field Prize and George Washington Egleston Prize); Harvard University; Oxford University; St. John's College (Annapolis)

Current Positions

Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation

Previous Positions

Corporate strategist, Boston Consulting Group; chief of staff, U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy; consultant for airlines, utilities, major manufacturers, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the federal Bureau of Prisons, and a number of nonprofit and educational institutionsc

Leadership, Management, and Reorganization of Large Governmental, Nonprofit, and For-Profit American Institutions