Eli Lehrer

Eli Lehrer is president and co-founder of R Street, overseeing its central headquarters in Washington, D.C., as well as its field offices in Tallahassee, Fla.; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas. Prior to co-founding R Street, Lehrer was vice president of the Heartland Institute. He also played a major role in founding SmarterSafer.org, a coalition of taxpayer, environmental, insurance and free-market groups dedicated to risk-based insurance rates, mitigation and environmental protection. Lehrer is co-author of the Heartland Institute monograph “Ten Principles of Property and Casualty Insurance Regulation” and co-author of the report “Green Scissors 2011.” He has published a series of annual reports on Florida’s insurance environment and a variety of reform proposals for the Texas insurance environment; is the author of several academic book chapters on emergency management and insurance topics; and was editor of Heartland’s “Seven Big Ideas for Congress.” His research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today. Lehrer worked as speechwriter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. He previously worked as a manager in Unisys Corp.’s Homeland Security Practice, was senior editor of The American Enterprise magazine, and a fellow for the Heritage Foundation. He has spoken at Yale and George Washington Universities. Lehrer earned a bachelor of arts, cum laude, from Cornell University and a masters with honors from Johns Hopkins University, where his master’s thesis focused on the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Washington Times, Weekly Standard, National Review, Public Interest, Salon and dozens of other publications.