Kevin Ban
Dr. Kevin Ban is a physician, healthcare leader, and Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Walgreens, where he helps shape the future of accessible, community-based care. Bridging clinical expertise with compassionate leadership, he brings a deeply human perspective to innovation in health and wellness.
Battle-Tested
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Emergency Physician
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Health Equity Champion
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Battle-Tested • Emergency Physician • Health Equity Champion •
More about Kevin
Imagine taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer for the 2nd largest chain pharmacy in the US, on the eve of a global pandemic. In January 2020, as the first wave of COVID hit American shores, Dr. Kevin Ban assumed the helm at Walgreens. Good thing he is no stranger to creating order out of chaos.
Graduating from Georgetown University with a BA in theology, Kevin served as a volunteer teacher at an all-boys school in South Africa. There, he found his calling and returned home to enroll in Georgetown medical school, completing his residency in general surgery at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine. He then joined Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians as an attending physician and was appointed to Harvard Medical School. Next, Kevin led the Tuscan Emergency Medicine Initiative—an innovative project to develop emergency medicine as a training specialty, helping launch Italy’s first pediatric trauma center. Kevin has since served as chief medical officer of Beth Israel Deaconess-Needham, where he helped restructure the hospital’s physician team, introduced Just Culture quality improvement, and helped launch a new cancer and surgical center. In 2015, Kevin joined Athenahealth, later becoming the company’s chief medical officer.
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With more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, Kevin has served as an on-air healthcare analyst, appeared on The Today Show, MSNBC News, Morning Joe, Bloomberg TV and Good Morning America, and contributed commentary to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.
He then joined Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians as an attending physician and was appointed to Harvard Medical School. Next, Kevin led the Tuscan Emergency Medicine Initiative—an innovative project to develop emergency medicine as a training specialty, helping launch Italy’s first pediatric trauma center. Kevin has since served as chief medical officer of Beth Israel Deaconess-Needham, where he helped restructure the hospital’s physician team, introduced Just Culture quality improvement, and helped launch a new cancer and surgical center. In 2015, Kevin joined Athenahealth, later becoming the company’s chief medical officer.
With more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, Kevin has served as an on-air healthcare analyst, appeared on The Today Show, MSNBC News, Morning Joe, Bloomberg TV and Good Morning America, and contributed commentary to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.
Speaking Topics
Reinvention
Leadership
Managing Change
Health & Wellness
Science
Watch Kevin in action
Presentations
Leading Through a Pandemic: Mistakes, Lessons, and Future Threats
In this behind-the-scenes presentation, Kevin takes audiences inside America’s COVID response—from government halls to frightened communities. Drawing on his leadership at Walgreens, he reveals how rapid decision-making, empathetic communication, and crisis medicine shaped public trust and vaccine rollout. With candor and insight, Kevin examines what failed, what worked, and how we can prepare—together—for the next global health crisis.
“Sometimes from crisis comes opportunity."
– Kevin ban