Dr. Joneigh Khaldun

Vice President & Chief Health Equity Officer of CVS Health

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun is the Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer of CVS Health, as well as an appointee to the Biden-Harris Administration COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force and a physician of emergency medicine for the Henry Ford Health System. She attended the University of Michigan for her undergraduate education, received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and pursued her MPH in Health Policy at George Washington University. She completed her medical residency in emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center/Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY and was elected chief resident in her final year. 

​​Dr. Khaldun is the former Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), a position she took over in 2019. She served in these roles throughout the pandemic until her recent departure for CVS. Dr. Khaldun was a leader for Michigan’s response to COVID-19 and focused on providing an equitable response. During this work in Michigan, she targeted a variety of challenges including inadequate data infrastructure, historical injustices, lack of sufficient resources such as vaccines and testing, and higher COVID-19 risks for marginalized groups. Early on in the response, Dr. Khaldun prioritized making case and death data available with race and ethnicity indicators. She then targeted inequities with measures such as media campaigns aimed at marginalized groups. Her efforts were successful considering Michigan eliminated the disparity between black and white deaths from COVID-19 in 2020. The Michigan Governor also declared racism a public health threat and this declaration allowed Dr. Khaldun and her team to use a variety of government approaches, such as expanding SNAP benefits and mandating implicit bias training, to respond to COVID-19 and its disproportionate impacts.

Dr. Khladun recognizes communication, partnerships, and a multipronged approach have been foundational components of the COVID-19 response in Michigan. In her new role as Vice President and Chief Equity Officer of CVS Health, she sees her position as a great opportunity to further target health systems and inequities.

Learn more about Joneigh Khaldun’s Work: