WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Dr. Chere Gregory dedicated her career to being a voice for the voiceless. She's the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for Novant Health.
“Essentially, what that means is our goal is to insure that regardless of your dimensions of diversity you are able to achieve the highest level of health,” Dr. Gregory said. “We look at the outcomes and experiences that our patients have that we call dimensions of diversity. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity, where you grew up, your zip code.”
As a change agent and originator, Dr. Gregory is the first of many. The first African American woman in the U.S. to design and direct a neurocritical care unit and the creator of the first Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Center in the Carolinas.
“People always assume that stroke happens in patients who are mature in age,” Dr. Gregory said. “One of the youngest patients I had was 19 years old. So, I realized very early in my career when I moved to North Carolina, that health equity was incredibly important and that the health disparities communities experience led to premature stroke and heart disease and other health challenges that are by and large preventable."
While at Novant Health, Dr. Gregory helped launch a regional neurology practice and neuroscience hospitalists team. She said understanding her Black History inspires her daily.
“It really has helped me to start conversations around what is historically true about our country and why it might be that certain communities particularly Black and Brown communities have potential mistrust for some of the care that may be provided,” Dr. Gregory said.
As a wife and mother of four children, Dr. Gregory hopes she can be an example for the next generation, that anything is achievable no matter their background.
“My mom and my grandmother were great supporters,” Dr. Gregory said. “We would have these conversations and they would say, ‘They don't define what your future is. You define what your future is.’ So, once you see something that you love, don't let anything stop you. Go for it.”
Dr. Gregory is board certified in Neurology and Vascular Neurology.