Kyu Rhee, MD

Kyu “Q” Rhee is a mission‑driven physician leader, educator, scientist, and innovator with extensive experience developing transdisciplinary teams across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors to improve the health system, particularly for underserved communities. Recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare for 2025, he serves as president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers. Since opening in 1965, community health centers (CHCs) have grown into a national network of more than 17,000 locations and deliver high‑quality, affordable, patient‑governed primary care to 52 million individuals across every state, US territory, and the District of Columbia. He was recently named to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Healthcare Advisory Committee.

Previously, Rhee was senior vice president and Aetna chief medical officer at CVS Health, where he led more than 1,500 clinicians in delivering integrated clinical and population health solutions serving about 65 million people. He spent a decade as IBM’s chief health officer, overseeing global initiatives to transform health using data, analytics, artificial intelligence, research, and services across multiple sectors.

Rhee served in HHS during the Affordable Care Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as chief public health officer of the Health Resources and Services Administration, as director of the Office of Innovation and Program Coordination at the National Institutes of Health, and as a National Health Service Corps physician and chief medical officer for CHCs. He completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics and served as chief resident at Cedars‑Sinai. He holds degrees from Yale, Harvard, and the University of Southern California.