Jeff Leitner

Jeff Leitner is an experienced social innovator and expert on engineering social change.

He is Innovator in Residence at the University of Southern California, housed in the world’s largest school of social work. There, he facilitated design and development of the nation’s first doctorate in social innovation; the nation’s first graduate school of nursing to fully integrate social determinants of health; and a graduate fellowship in social innovation.

Leitner led developed of the first methodology for leveraging social norms to effect social change, which is now taught in universities and training programs in business, healthcare and social sector leadership.

He is a Fellow at New America, a nonpartisan think tank and social venture fund, where he partnered with the OECD to develop the first-ever sequencing of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. His research – based on a survey of economists, political scientists and social scientists around the world – has been published and presented in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. He is now working with scientists to develop the first artificial intelligence to sequence efforts to solve the world’s leading challenges.

Leitner is founding director of UX for Good, a multi-year initiative to leverage experience design to solve social challenges. There, he has partnered with the Dalai Lama Center for Peace + Education to advance social-emotional learning in public schools; with Aegis Trust to boost the impact of genocide memorials in Africa and Europe; and with the GRAMMY Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative to raise the standard of living for professional musicians in New Orleans.