Ray Scheppach is the former Executive Director of the National Governors Association (NGA) serving from January 1983-January 2011. Here, he became a specialist in the role of states in the formulation and implementation of public policy as well as in a broad range of domestic policy issues including welfare, education, health care and economic development. He was listed as a top association lobbyist by the Hill Magazine in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and Fortune Magazine listed NGA as the 12th most powerful lobbying organization in 1999.

Prior to that he spent seven years at the Congressional Budget Office. He initially was hired as the Chief of the Energy and Environment Cost Unit but was promoted to Director of the Energy and Environment Program Division and then to Deputy Director to Alice Rivlin for his last two years. In this position he coordinated the multi-division reports and testified before many of the Congressional Committees on Capitol Hill.

Scheppach currently has a joint appointment at the Miller Center for Public Affairs and over the last several years has created two national commissions.

From 2013 - 2014, Scheppach was the Project Director for the State Health Care Cost Containment Commission, which was co-chaired by Mike Leavitt (former governor and Secretary of HHS) and former governor Bill Ritter and included ten other members, most of whom were CEOs of major firms in the health care industry. He is also a co-author of the report “Cracking the Code on Health Care Costs“ published in January 2014, which makes recommendations to states on how they can reduce the rate of increase in the cost of health care.

Scheppach is Project Director for the Commission on Financing 21st Century Higher Education. This commission is co-chaired by former governor Mike Castle and former governor/senator Bob Graham and has twelve additional members including five university presidents and five private sector CEOs. Four of the ten white papers have been released and the remaining six and the final report will be released in the fall of 2016.

He has also planned and supervised a retreat with cabinet officials and former governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia McDonnell at the Batten School and has testified before the Joint Committee on Health Care of the Virginia legislature.

Ray Scheppach is considered to be a national expert on federalism and the role of states in our inter-governmental system. He is also a national expert on governors as leaders on domestic policy issues.