L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH
Dean, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Executive Vice President of Academic Health Affairs, Wake Forest University
Chief Academic Officer, Advocate Health
L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH serves as Dean of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer of Advocate Health, where she leads the academic mission of one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems. In these roles, she provides enterprise-wide vision and leadership for education, research, and clinical innovation across Advocate Health’s national footprint. She unifies academic affairs across the School of Medicine’s two campuses and oversees a broad range of academic programs, including MD education, nursing, and biomedical graduate education. Her leadership spans more than 240 Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs across seven sponsoring organizations and includes oversight of the Carolinas College of Health Sciences and Cabarrus College of Health Sciences.
Dr. Boulware also leads one of the nation’s largest integrated clinical research platforms. This includes a single IRB operating across more than 70 Advocate Health hospitals; the Advocate Health National Center for Clinical Trials; Translational Centers of Excellence in Cancer, Heart & Vascular, and Neuroscience; and an enterprise-wide data and analytics platform encompassing more than 6 million individuals. Under her leadership, the research enterprise at Wake Forest University School of Medicine has expanded substantially, now supported by more than $450 million in extramural funding.
A general internist, physician–scientist, and clinical epidemiologist, Dr. Boulware is internationally recognized for research focused on improving health for all. Her work identifies and addresses patient, health system, and community-level barriers that contribute to unequal health outcomes, particularly for individuals with chronic conditions such as kidney disease. Across her career, she has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts and secured more than $80 million in individual and institutional grant funding.
Dr. Boulware is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, where she currently serves on the Governing Council. She is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. Her national leadership reflects a longstanding commitment to advancing scientific excellence, equity, and innovation in academic medicine.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and her medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine. She completed her residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the University of Maryland and received her Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.