CVS Health names Dr. Joneigh S. Khaldun as Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer

CVS Health announced that Joneigh Khaldun, M.D., MPH, FACEP has joined the company as Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer. She will report to Kyu Rhee, M.D., MPP, Senior Vice President and Aetna Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Khaldun will lead the strategy to advance health equity for patients, members, providers, customers, and communities served across all lines of the CVS Health business. She and her team will focus on culturally competent care delivery, ensuring it is fully integrated into the design and development of clinical and population health programs, products, services, interactions and communications. She will also work collaboratively with the broader health care system to advance health equity and better support underserved communities.

“As a health care innovation company committed to health equity and breaking down barriers that perpetuate health care disparities, Dr. Khaldun joins our team as Chief Health Equity Officer at a critically important time,” said Rhee. “Her expertise in creating solutions to help improve health outcomes will help us continue addressing health inequities for the customers and communities we serve.”

Prior to joining CVS Health, Dr. Khaldun served as the Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, where she was responsible for public health and aging programs, Medicaid and behavioral health. She led Michigan’s COVID-19 response and is credited for Michigan’s early identification of and strategy to address disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. In 2021, she was named by President Biden to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

Previously, Dr. Khaldun held several positions that leveraged her expertise in improving, expanding and modernizing the delivery of community health services, including Director and Health Officer for the Detroit Health Department and Chief Medical Officer of the Baltimore City Health Department. She was also Director of the Center for Injury Prevention and Control at George Washington University, Founder and Director of the Fellowship in Health Policy in the University of Maryland Department of Emergency Medicine, and Fellow in the Obama-Biden administration’s Office of Health Reform in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Khaldun obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, MPH in Health Policy from George Washington University, and completed residency in emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center/Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. She practices emergency medicine part-time at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

She currently serves on the National Advisory Board for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan, the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, and on the Health and Medicine Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of Michigan School of Public Health.