A History of The Heller School and
Its Impact on Social Policy
1959
The Florence G. Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare is founded. It is Brandeis University’s first professional school, and the first school of its kind to bridge the gap between social welfare and social policy. The school is established thanks to the generosity of Florence G. Heller, a community
and national organization leader as well as a philanthropist. She was the first woman president of the National Jewish Welfare Board and was instrumental in the establishment of the USO in 1941.
Charles Schottland, former Federal Commissioner on Social Security, is appointed as the first dean of the school. →
1963
A Heller faculty member serves as a consultant to President John F. Kennedy’s special assistant on retardation.
1964
A member of the Heller faculty is invited by the United States Children’s Bureau to undertake the first nationwide epidemiological study of child abuse.
1967
A Heller faculty member serves on President Lyndon Johnson’s Commission on Aging.
1970
Deinstitutionalization of large mental retardation facilities begins. Heller faculty member Gunnar Dybwad serves as an expert witness in a number of class action suits on public facilities for individuals with mental retardation.
1971
Arnold Gurin, the second dean of the Heller School, is appointed.
Heller faculty member Gunnar Dybwad serves as the lead expert witness in a landmark class action lawsuit in Pennsylvania that results in the right to education for children with disabilities.
1975
Heller faculty and graduate students conduct a landmark, federally-funded national follow-up study of persons with mental retardation who were released from state institutions.
1977
Heller adds a Master of Management in Human Services. This is the first program of its kind in a school of social welfare.
Heller hosts the University Health Policy Consortium – the largest research grant ever awarded by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Consortium is named the first Center for Health Policy Analysis by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA).
Stuart Altman is appointed as dean of the Heller School.
1978
The Institute for Health Policy (now the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy) is established.
1979
Heller is selected to participate in President Jimmy Carter’s North-South Fellowship Program for professionals from developing countries to study public administration and policy.
HCFA selects Heller’s Institute for Health Policy to lead a consortium with Boston University and MIT as one of its two national health policy research centers.
1981
Six of seventeen expert witnesses for United States Senate hearings on aging are Heller community members.
1982
Heller faculty members publish a national study of programs serving elderly persons with mental retardation – the first national comprehensive study of residential and day services.
1983
The Center for Human Resources (now the Center for Youth and Communities) is established.
Heller Dean Stuart Altman is selected as chair of the United States Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to oversee the Medicare payment policy to hospitals.
1984
The United States Congress enacts legislation to launch the Social Health Maintenance Organization (SHMO) demonstration project, developed by Heller faculty, as the model for managed care programs for the elderly and disabled.
1985
The Nathan and Toby Starr Center for Mental Retardation is established.
1988
Heller faculty members conduct research, “Support Services in Senior Housing,” that leads federal policy makers to enact the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 and later authorization on Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for service coordinators.
1990
The Family and Child Policy Center (now the Institute on Child, Youth and Family Policy) is established.
In recognition of the growing policy challenges posed by the rapidly 
increasing elderly population, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services establishes the position of Assistant Secretary of Aging. Alumnus Fernando Torres-Gil, Ph.D. ’76, is confirmed by Congress as the first appointment to this post. The second individual to be appointed Assistant Secretary of Aging is Heller alumna Jeanette Takamura, Ph.D. '85, now Dean of the School of Social Work at Columbia University.
1992
Heller Dean Stuart Altman is named to President Bill Clinton’s Health Policy Transition Team.
1994
Jack Shonkoff, M.D., is appointed dean of the Heller School.
Heller is ranked among the top ten U.S. schools of social policy by U.S. News and World Report.
1995
The National Policy Center on Women and Aging (now the National Program on Women and Aging) is established.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse awards the Heller School $5.5 million to form the Brandeis/Harvard Research Center on Managed Care and Drug Abuse Treatment to examine the effects of managed care on the organization, delivery, and financing of drug and alcohol abuse treatment services.
1996
Heller Dean Jack Shonkoff is appointed chair of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
1998
Heller adds the Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree and incorporates the Brandeis graduate program in Sustainable International Development.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama visits to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis and speaks of the plight of the Tibetan people to Heller students and the public. The Coexistence Fellowship to fund Tibetan and Chinese students in Heller's Sustainable International Development program is created in his honor.
President Clinton appoints Stuart Altman to the National Bi-Partisan Commission on the Future of the Medicare Program.
1999
Heller faculty member Laurence Simon convenes an international group of scholars and practitioners for a follow-up roundtable symposium on sustainable development strategies for Tibet in a historic, “first of its kind” event.
The Center for International Development is established.
2000
The Asset Development Institute (now the Institute on Assets and Social Policy) is established.
2001
The Florence G. Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare changes its name to The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, to reflect the current degree programs in social policy and management.
2004
Heller’s ranking by U.S. News and World Report moves up to number three.
2005
Stuart Altman is again appointed dean.
2006
The Irving Schneider and Family Building is constructed to double the size of the Heller School's physical plant.
The Institute for Behavioral Health is established.
