Bio
Dr. Cheryl Whitaker was Founding Chairman and CEO of NextLevel Health, a medicaid health insurance company dedicated to helping underserved populations access and manage Medicaid services. This innovative for-profit company used a rigorous population health data-analytics approach to help coordinate extensive patient services provided through a geographically co-located Care Management Team model. Dr. Whitaker serves as chairman of the board of directors and oversees audit/finance, governance, compliance, and compensation functions of the business. Her expertise includes executive management, building and leading high performing teams, change management, organizational transformation, leveraging IT to transform practice. From 2011-2013, she served as the inaugural chairman of the Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority, where she guided the State’s effort to create secure data exchange for health information. From 2009 to 2011, she worked as a Senior Program Officer for the Chicago Community Trust, overseeing strategy for all health-related grants—including efforts related to healthcare reform and the health information exchange. She also served as a faculty member at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Whitaker earned a medical degree at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Stanford University and University of California San Francisco, and a fellowship in health services research at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the Institute of Medicine Chicago, The Chicago Network, The Economic Club of Chicago, Women Business Leaders of the US Healthcare System, and Founding Member of Chief.