Fairleigh Dickinson University Appoints Healthcare Innovator Dr. Stephen Klasko to Board of Trustees
July 1, 2026 — Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) has appointed renowned advocate for change in healthcare Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, to its Board of Trustees for a three-year term.
Dr. Stephen K. Klasko
Dr. Klasko, a former university president, healthcare system CEO, dean of two medical schools, and practicing physician, is currently chief executive officer of the Health Assurance Foundation (HAF), a social welfare organization dedicated to ensuring that the AI-driven transformation of healthcare benefits everyone — patients, the healthcare workforce, and the communities the current system leaves behind. HAF was born from the health assurance movement ignited by UnHealthcare, the manifesto Dr. Klasko co-authored with General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, which inspired General Catalyst’s health assurance investment thesis and the creation of the Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo). Dr. Klasko continues to serve as a senior advisor to General Catalyst and as North American Ambassador to the global Future of Health (FOH) network.
“We are honored to welcome Dr. Klasko to the board, and his extraordinary experiences and insights in advances in healthcare innovations will greatly benefit the University,” said FDU President Michael Avaltroni. “As FDU continues its emphasis on health science programs and preparing the healthcare workforce of the future, Dr. Klasko will help us stay at the forefront of transformations in the healthcare sector.”
Dr. Klasko has worked closely with FDU and President Avaltroni in recent years on several projects and played a key role in launching the Humanics Innovation Challenge at FDU, which integrates human and machine learning in healthcare. This initiative is funded by a seed gift from Dr. Klasko that will, among other things, support a Humanics Hub on the Metropolitan Campus.
“I’ve spent my career betting that the most interesting solutions happen when worlds that aren’t supposed to talk to each other collide — medicine and design, Silicon Valley and the bedside, machine learning and human learning,” said Dr. Klasko. “FDU gets that. President Avaltroni isn’t just preparing students for today’s healthcare jobs; he’s preparing them for jobs that don’t yet exist. Joining this board is a chance to help build the empathetic, tech-fluent healthcare workforce this country desperately needs.”
As the former President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Dr. Klasko led the transformation from a $1.8 billion regional player into a $10 billion healthcare system. He pioneered the bold merger between a health sciences university and a nationally ranked design school, proving that healthcare’s future lies in creativity and design as well as clinical medicine. Jefferson Health was named the nation’s fastest-growing academic medical center during his tenure.
Since leaving Jefferson, his board leadership spans NYSE’s Teleflex (as Board Chair of the $7 billion medical device entity, currently transitioning to a successor) and NASDAQ’s DocGo (as Board Chair), plus a portfolio of cutting-edge startups, including Globo, Amplify MD, Hippocratic AI, Aidoc, CraniUs, Paradigm AI, Insite, Oova and Agentis, that are reimagining healthcare delivery. He also chairs the CEO Council of the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Klasko is a recent presidential appointee to the National Board of Education Sciences and a former dean of two medical colleges (University of South Florida and Drexel). He has spent decades dismantling artificial barriers between high-tech innovation and high-touch care. His visionary leadership earned him recognition as #2 in Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare,” tied with industry leaders Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos, and #21 in Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.”
A prolific author whose works range from serious healthcare manifestos to satirical children’s books, Dr. Klasko’s titles include — along with UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance (2021) — Patient No Longer: How YOU Can Lead the Consumer Revolution in Healthcare (2025), and Feelin’ Alright: How the Message in the Music Can Make Healthcare Healthier (2023), all of which uncover profound insights in unexpected places. His soon-to-be-released book, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Healthcare Galaxy (2026), is a time-traveling romp through healthcare’s future that shows how the collision of radically different universes can fix America’s fractured system. Dr. Klasko is also an active DJ, spinning tunes in Nashville, Las Vegas, and Miami.
Dr. Klasko holds a BS from Lehigh University, an MD from Hahnemann University (now Drexel University College of Medicine), an MBA from the Wharton School, as well as an honorary doctorate (D.Sc.) from Fairleigh Dickinson University.