Jeff Olivet

Senior Advisor, Initiative on Health and Homelessness

Jeff Olivet is an internationally recognized leader in public health and homelessness policy, with a deep focus on the intersection of housing, healthcare, and racial equity. As the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) from 2022-2024, he led federal efforts to address homelessness as a public health crisis, advocating for policies that integrate healthcare and housing solutions and that prevent homelessness before it starts. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Initiative on Health and Homelessness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a consultant to numerous other organizations. 

Jeff has over three decades of experience as an outreach worker, advocate, researcher, teacher, writer, and inspiring public speaker. From 2010 to 2018, he was CEO of the Center for Social Innovation (now C4 Innovations), where he led national initiatives aimed at improving access to mental health and substance use treatment, addressing social determinants of health, and promoting racial equity in healthcare systems. He has been principal investigator on multiple studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations.

Jeff has collaborated with healthcare providers, policymakers, and people with lived experience to design systems that better serve marginalized populations. Through research, training, and advocacy, he has championed holistic approaches that treat housing as a fundamental component of health, working to dismantle the structural barriers that keep people trapped in cycles of trauma and homelessness.

He has a B.A. in English and French from the University of Alabama and an M.A. in English from Boston College.