Biographical Information
Cristy Page, MD, MPH, is a family physician and healthcare executive who delivers excellence and value through teamwork, partnerships, and innovation. She is also a national leader in academic medicine, rural healthcare delivery, and workforce development.
She currently serves as President of UNC Health Enterprises and UNC Health’s Chief Academic Officer. In these roles, she leads the UNC School of Medicine’s tripartite mission of research, education, and clinical care and their extension into UNC Health, as well as strategic initiatives and partnerships for UNC Health. Page is responsible for expansion and development of branch campuses to train more health providers, strategic growth of residency programs in affiliated hospitals, expansion of clinical trials to new communities, and leadership of statewide faculty, among other priorities.
A member of the UNC Health senior executive team, Page leads a wide array of projects, including co-chairing the system’s ambitious Forward Together 2030 strategy. She is committed to our mission of ‘improving the health and wellbeing’ by prioritizing innovation and partnerships. Page identifies high-impact opportunities to best meet the needs of patients, teammates, and communities, designing strategies to provide better care while enabling growth consistent with the organization’s core mission. She highlights and identifies new business ventures, ensuring that they are fully developed and that they have the resources necessary to achieve both growth and operational objectives. Page develops partnerships to support diversified growth that meets patient needs and generates value.
She also serves on the UNC Health Board of Directors, which oversees the academic health system’s 19 hospitals and $6.86B in revenue.
Prior to her current positions, she served as UNC School of Medicine Executive Dean from 2019 through 2025. Under Page’s leadership, the UNC School of Medicine made great strides toward realizing the vision of becoming the nation’s leading public school of medicine. As Executive Dean, Page oversaw a continual increase in research funding. In FY24, funding exceeded $649 million for the first time, growing by more than $150 million since 2019. Also, under Page’s leadership, the UNC School of Medicine opened Roper Hall, an award-winning medical education building that will accommodate an expanded class size to better meet the healthcare needs of North Carolina.
Page’s vision and leadership have also helped expand the clinical, research, and educational footprint of the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health. She has been instrumental in a partnership with Novant Health to work together in the Wilmington, North Carolina, region. This work includes expanded educational opportunities for medical and other health affairs students, as well as access to clinical trials and expanded pediatric specialty care in the region.
Page’s leadership also expands well beyond UNC. As the founder of the Rural GME and Teaching Health Centers, Page and colleagues have worked to enhance access to care in underserved areas across the nation. The consortium focuses on increasing access to care through support for the development of new rural residency programs across multiple specialties as well as health policy and health workforce scholarship. The consortium has produced extensive research on rural health workforce development and successfully informed policies that support increased access to underserved care.
A native of Wilmington and a lifelong North Carolinian, Page first came to UNC as a Morehead Scholar before going on to complete her Medical Doctorate, Master of Public Health, family medicine residency, chief resident position, and faculty development fellowship in Chapel Hill. She is a Distinguished Professor of Family Medicine and has served on the UNC School of Medicine faculty since 2005.
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