Kevin High, MD, MS, MACP, FIDSA, is vice chief academic officer of the academic Learning Health System (aLHS) for Advocate Health and professor of medicine and translational science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
In his vice chief academic officer role, Dr. High collaborates with the chief academic officer and chief science officer to develop and propel the strategic vision of the aLHS through administrative and operational oversight that intentionally blurs the boundaries of the academic and clinical missions. He is responsible for growing aLHS core competencies, integrating research and clinical practice models to accelerate research into clinical practice, driving embedded research and clinical trials as a care model and reducing translation time from discovery to clinical impact.
Previously, Dr. High served as president of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist from 2015 to 2023 during a time of major growth. Dr. High was responsible for leading all aspects of the health system’s clinical administrative enterprise and overseeing operations, facilities, budget and clinical faculty/staff. He helped nearly double the size of Wake Forest Baptist by adding Wilkes Medical Center, High Point Medical Center and the Cornerstone Physician Group to the health system and greatly expanding and integrating services across Wake Forest Baptist. He also played a key role integrating Wake Forest Baptist with Atrium Health in 2020 and Advocate/Aurora in 2022. The combined entity, Advocate Health, spans seven states and is the third largest non-profit health system in the country, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core.
Dr. High joined Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1993 and served in a variety of administrative, academic and research positions prior to becoming system-wide president. Dr. High was Tinsley R. Harrison Professor and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and previously served as section chief of infectious diseases, and in multiple associate dean and other leadership roles.
An accomplished clinician/scientist in the field of infection and immunity in older adults, Dr. High received multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and multiple foundations (John A. Hartford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc.). He held many national roles, including principal investigator of the Coordinating Center for the fifteen National Institute on Aging (NIA)-sponsored Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers. Dr. High’s principal investigator efforts for programs that integrate geriatrics and gerontology into the subspecialties of internal medicine and advance junior faculty with an aging research focus (the T. Franklin Williams Scholars, Grants for Early Medical/Surgical Specialists' Transition to Aging Research (GEMSSTAR)) have earned him national recognition. He previously served as a member of the NIA Council and the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine. His work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Aging Cell, Blood, Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Dr. High received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he also completed residency training. He completed an infectious diseases fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine and earned a master’s degree in epidemiology from Wake Forest University.