Jeff Richardson is a retired senior health and human services executive and advocate who's spent most of his career leading efforts to support people in need address significant health and social services challenges in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Most recently, he served as the vice president of the AbbVie Foundation, where he oversaw its international programs.
Prior to AbbVie, Richardson worked for the Abbott Fund, where he led the effort to establish the fund's first international giving program, which focused on helping children and families in resource-poor countries hit hard by HIV and AIDS. As of 2017, the Abbott Fund's global HIV and AIDS programs have served more than 10 million people with an investment of more than $350 million.
Prior to joining the Abbott Fund, Richardson was a managing director of Burson Marsteller's global healthcare practice. Earlier, he also ran two state agencies for then-Indiana Governor Evan Bayh: the 900-person Department of Human Services and the 13,000-person Family and Social Services Administration, also known as the Departments of Human Services, Welfare and Mental Health. In addition, Richardson was executive director of GMHC, the nation's largest HIV/AIDS organization, where he began as a volunteer ten years earlier. He started his career in Eli Lilly's public affairs group.
All three of Richardson's degrees - a bachelor's degree in history, a J.D., and an M.P.A. - are from Indiana University Bloomington. He has received several honors from the university including Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Maurer School of Law, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and from Indiana University. While he was in law school, Richardson was the first full-time university student elected to the Bloomington City Council. As an undergraduate, Richardson served as the student body president, a columnist for the Indiana Daily Student, and was a member of the IU soccer team.
Richardson has taught health policy as an adjunct professor at City University of New York and has taught public affairs at IU's Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. For more than ten years he's also served as a guest lecturer for the O'Neill School's Washington Leadership Program.
In 2020, Richardson was presented the Bicentennial Medal for his distinguished service to Indiana University.
