Mark McClellan, MD, PhD | Cheryl Pegus, MD

Mark McClellan, PhD, is director and Robert J. Margolis, MD, Professor of Business, Medicine and Policy at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy at Duke University. He is a physician-economist who focuses on quality and value in healthcare, including payment reform, real-world evidence, and more effective drug and device innovation. At the center of the nation’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the author of COVID-19 response roadmap, and co-author of a comprehensive set health policy strategies for COVID vaccines, testing and treatments, Dr. McClellan and his Duke-Margolis colleagues are now focused on health policy strategies and solutions to advance the resilience and interconnectedness of 21st-century public health and healthcare. Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. Dr. McClellan is an independent board member on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Alignment Healthcare, and PrognomIQ; co-chairs the Guiding Committee for the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network; and serves as an advisor for Arsenal Capital Group, Blackstone Life Sciences. 

Cheryl Pegus, MD, serves as executive chair of FlyteHealth and is on the boards of Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) and Concentra (NYSE: CON), bringing more than 25 years of clinical and business experience across the health sector. She is also on the not-for-profit boards of the American Heart Association and the Alice Walton School of Medicine. She is president of Caluent and invests in privately held companies focused on team-based care management; innovations in cardiology and brain health; and equitable healthcare simplification. She has served as a partner at Morgan Health supporting venture investments and was executive vice president of health and wellness at Walmart, overseeing pharmacy, optical and clinical offerings. Prior to those positions, Dr. Pegus served as president of Consumer Solutions and CMO for Cambia Health Solutions where she was responsible for pharmacy services, including pharmacy benefit management across the enterprise; provider and network management; clinical services and cost stewardship; behavioral health and medical management; and new product development, including leading and expanding Cambia’s consumer solutions platform. She also served as the first CMO at Walgreens and previously held roles at Pfizer, where she focused on the development of clinical protocols and early disease management programs, and Aetna, where her work supported a focus on wellness, women's health, health equity initiatives and predictive analytics. Dr. Pegus began her career in private practice as a cardiologist and has served as board chair for the Association of Black Cardiologists. She has been consistently recognized as one of the country’s most influential healthcare leaders. Dr. Pegus is a co-founder of A New Beat, a joint educational initiative from the Association of Black Cardiologists and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the author of several healthy cookbooks, and maintains a scholarship for under-represented students at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Pegus received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and her medical doctorate from Weill Cornell Medical College. She received her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.