William L. Roper, M.D., M.P.H.

William L. Roper is Dean of the School of Medicine, Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs and Chief Executive Officer of the UNC Health Care System at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also is Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Health Policy and Administration in the School of Public Health.

From 1997 until March 2004, Dr. Roper was Dean of the School of Public Health at UNC.

Before joining UNC in 1997, Dr. Roper was senior vice president of Prudential HealthCare. He joined Prudential in 1993 as president of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research.

Before coming to Prudential, Dr. Roper was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), served on the senior White House staff, and was administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (the agency responsible for Medicare and Medicaid). Earlier, he was a White House Fellow.

He received his M.D. from the University of Alabama School of Medicine, and his M.P.H. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado Medical Center.

Dr. Roper is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a member of the board of directors of DaVita, Inc., a member of the board of directors of Medco Health Solutions, Inc., a member of the board of directors of the UNC Health Care System, a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships and chairman of the board of directors of the National Quality Forum.

He and his wife, Dr. Maryann Roper, a pediatric oncologist, and their son, Will, live in Chapel Hill.