Dr. Sam Shekar is a senior medical/public health executive with extensive leadership expertise and a strong multi-organizational record of accomplishment over a thirty-year career across the nation’s health sector. He last served as a Chief Medical Officer with a Fortune 150 corporation and is a former Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral in the United States Public Health Service. Key highlights:
Dr. Shekar was the Chief Medical Officer for Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Technology Services /Information Systems for over eight years, where he provided strategic clinical leadership for the company’s large Health IT (healthcare, public health, science) business. During his tenure there, he led the Clinical Advisory Council, directed bioinformatics and global medical coding programs and oversaw health and science analytics initiatives. His leadership efforts resulted in new R&D programs, multiple patent submissions and funded biotechnology programs. He was also an Executive Leadership Program member and key representative to health organizations, agencies, academia and industry.
In his federal career, he served over 21 years as an officer with the United States Public Health Service. As a former Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral, he held several executive positions, including in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the National Institutes of Health (helping lead NIH-wide policy coordination), and the Health Resources and Services Administration, where he directed federal health center/health professions programs providing care and support to millions of Americans.
He worked in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS/formerly HCFA) over seven years (including as Director of the Physicians Advisory Council), with increasing responsibilities for medical policy guidance. Dr. Shekar joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a medical epidemiologist, conducting data analyses and investigations. He also served on details to the White House/HHS AIDS offices and directed the 2005 Hurricane Wilma federal health response in Florida.
Dr. Shekar is a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health and the Dean’s Advisory Board for the U-Michigan School of Public Health. He completed a CDC Preventive Medicine residency and received his MD and MPH degrees from the University of Michigan.