Bechara Choucair

Dr. Bechara Choucair is a physician executive with more than 25 years of public health, health care, and environmental sustainability leadership experience in governmental, not-for-profit, and for-profit sectors including leading the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination effort as the top White House vaccination official in 2021.

Dr. Choucair currently serves as executive vice president and chief health officer for Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated health system with more than 12.5 million members. In this role, he oversees over $4 billion in annual investments supporting the organization’s community health and social health portfolio, including the creation of the nation’s largest social health network and the organization’s philanthropic giving.

Dr. Choucair is also responsible for the Medicaid line of business, covering over 1.5 million members as well as driving initiatives to increase access to care and improve health outcomes for those enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare.

In addition, he spearheads enterprise clinical business development, including advancing innovative care delivery models, technologies, and products. In 2023, together with Town Hall Ventures, he led the development of Habitat Health, bringing CMS’ Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) to more Kaiser Permanente communities.

Additionally, Dr. Choucair leads Kaiser Permanente’s environmental stewardship strategy. Under his direction, the organization achieved carbon neutrality in 2020 and is progressing toward its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

In 2021, Dr. Choucair served as the White House national COVID-19 vaccinations coordinator, leading the nation’s vaccination effort. During his tenure, nearly 500 million doses of the vaccine were administered nationwide. Dr. Choucair also served as Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner from 2009 to 2014.

Dr. Choucair chairs the board of Maui Health System, is on the board of Habitat Health, serves on the board of Enterprise Community Partners and is a member of American University Beirut’s International Advisory Council. He is a board-certified family physician with a master’s in health care management. He has earned a number of local and national awards, including being named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Health Executives in the United States, one of the Most Influential People in Healthcare, one of the Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare, and one of the Top 25 Minority Healthcare Executives.