Greensboro—Dr. Olu Jegede has been named the chief health equity and community impact officer at Cone Health.
In this new role, Jegede leads the development and execution of a bold strategic plan focused on promoting health equity, eliminating health care disparities and building community wellness across Cone Health's service areas. He will collaborate with Cone Health leaders to establish health equity as a core competency and drive the implementation of strategies and policies to remove disparities in care.
Jegede joined Cone Health in 2014. He previously worked as the medical director of Cone Health Community Health and Wellness Center and area medical director for Cone Health Medical Group. He was promoted to vice president of clinical care and health equity in 2022.
Since taking the helm of Cone Health’s Center for Health Equity, Jegede developed CATCH 5 in 5 (Collaborative Actions Toward Community Health.). The initiative promises to add five years of life expectancy to people living in certain urban and rural areas where people die sooner than those living elsewhere.
Jegede’s work has led to double-digit reductions in the number of people using the emergency department for non-emergencies as well as lowering the number of people needing hospital-level care. Jegede also established Cone Health’s transitional care clinic, which reduced the number of people returning to the hospital within 30 days after leaving it by 43% among established patients within the first year.
Earlier this year, Jegede was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Innovators for 2024, awarded the North Carolina Healthcare Association’s 2024 Clinical Leadership Award, and the American College of Healthcare Executives 2024 Regent’s Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership.
