Duke Health Sector Advisory Council

Jim Corum, MBA

Role: Speaker

Jim Corum, MBA

Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer

Diana Health

Jim Corum is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Diana Health. He founded Diana Health to offer an innovative, health delivery model that improves patient outcomes, lowers cost, and enhances the patient experience in a segment that needs change.

Prior to Diana Health, Corum served as the lead business development officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Prior to VUMC, he held various roles in health care industry segments, including ambulatory surgery, physician practice acquisition and integration consulting; patient satisfaction, and managed care where he serviced in both business development and operational leadership capacities.

Corum has a Bachelor of Arts from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Patrick Jordan, MBA

CEO and Director

Mycovia Pharmaceuticals

Patrick Jordan is a pharmaceutical and private equity leader with a passion for advancing health care solutions and creating value in partnerships.

He is CEO and Director of Mycovia Pharmaceuticals which is developing a drug for women’s health. Jordan holds MBA and BA degrees from Duke University.

Megann Vaughn Watters, MBA

Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances

LabCorp

Megann Vaughn Watters is an experienced corporate development executive and investor with over 10 years of novel technology identification, partnership development, deal execution, alliance management, financial and strategic return, and venture-backed board experience within the health care industry.

As the Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances at Labcorp, she manages the Labcorp Venture Fund and leads the Corporate Development team tasked to identify, assess, and bring innovative science and technology to Labcorp through partnerships, such as equity investments, licensing, and strategic partnership opportunities.

Vaughn Watters previously held positions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner for medical devices and Humacyte conducting tissue engineering research.
Vaughn Watters received her MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and her BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.

Jeff Terrell

Partner

Hatteras Venture Partners

Jeff Terrell joined the Hatteras team in 2012 while pursuing his MBA at Duke University. Prior to moving to Durham, Terrell worked in a sales and clinical support role for a large Medtronic distributor. Based in Georgia and South Carolina, he worked in the operating room with neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons, selling and providing service on Medtronic spinal implants and image-guided surgery equipment.

Prior to this role, Terrell devoted two years to pursue a career as a professional quarterback, spending time with the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys. Since joining Hatteras, he has worked in a corporate development role in a medical device portfolio company, and assisted in overall firm operations, deal flow activities and diligence. Terrell focuses primarily on Hatteras’ medical device efforts.

Terrell is a director on the boards of AtaCor Medical, Dropworks and 410 Medical. He also serves as a board observer at Rapid Pulse, Contego Medical, Qvella, and Elligo Health Research.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, and an MBA from Duke University, with a focus on health care and finance.

Claire Pearson, MBA

Managing Director

Barclays' Global Healthcare

Claire Pearson is a Managing Director in Barclays’ Global Healthcare Banking group where she is responsible for providing strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital raising.

Pearson covers health care services clients including hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, and physicians. She is based in the New York office.

Pearson has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Certificate in Finance from Princeton University and earned an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, with concentrations in Health Sector Management and Corporate Finance.

Prior to business school, she was a Consultant at Trinity Partners, a life sciences strategic consulting firm.

Richard Burr

United States Senator serving North Carolina

U.S. SENATE

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, Senator Burr served five terms in the House and is currently serving North Carolina in his third term in the U.S. Senate. During his time in the House, he led legislation modernizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and began his work to improve our nation’s
biodefense and pandemic preparedness capabilities.

In the Senate, he serves as Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Promoting innovation in America’s health care system has been a priority for him throughout his time in Congress. Senator Burr has led on a number of significant legislative priorities, including the creation of today’s pandemic response framework through the passage and reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), improving FDA’s ability to regulate cutting-edge treatments for patients, and consistently championing funding for medical innovation and research.

Protecting and honoring human and civil rights is another area where he has led legislatively. Senator Burr spearheaded the passage of the Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act. This legislation allowed for individuals with disabilities to save money in their own name without losing critical benefits, including health care. In 2014, the ABLE Act was signed into law, and was widely regarded as the most significant legislative accomplishment for individuals with disabilities since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 2016, he worked with the late civil rights leader, Representative John Lewis (D-GA) to reauthorize the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act. The passage of this bill provided a critical opportunity to right the wrongs committed against African Americans that were never investigated during the Civil Rights Era.

In addition to leading Republicans on the HELP Committee, Senator Burr also serves as a senior member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Finance Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging.

The son of a minister, Senator Burr and his family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina when he was a young child. He attended Wake Forest University on a football scholarship, and after graduating, he began his career far from the halls of Congress by spending seventeen years in business with Carswell Distributing, a wholesale commercial products company.

He also serves as a Board Member of Brenner Children’s Hospital and on the West Point Board of Visitors. Senator Burr and his wife, Brooke, have two sons. 

Jim Kinser

Assistant Vice President, Strategy & Innovation

HCA Healthcare

Jim Kinser is an AVP in HCA Healthcare’s Strategy & Innovation Group, which supports the development and execution of the organization’s strategic initiatives and development activity. Earlier at HCA, Kinser led the company’s efforts in bundled payment programs.

Prior to HCA, Kinser was Director of Provider Contracting for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. He has also worked in a number of hospital administration roles for Community Health Systems.

Kinser has an MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He earned his BA from Vanderbilt University with a major in economics.

Sarah Izzo

MBA Association Co-President

The Fuqua School of Business

Sarah Izzo is a second year Daytime MBA student at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Prior to Fuqua, she worked in health care consulting, first at The Advisory Board (acquired by Optum) and then Fletcher Spaght Inc.

Izzo spent the summer of 2020 interning in Patient Services at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and will return there upon graduation this May. At Fuqua, she currently serves as co-president of the MBA Student Association. Izzo chairs the Fuqua Student COVID Task Force and also sits on the COVID Student Advisory Committee with Duke’s Office of the Provost.

Erica Taylor, MD

Associate Chief Medical Officer of Diversity and Inclusion

Duke Health

Erica Taylor, MD is the Duke Health Physician Organization’s inaugural Associate Chief Medical Officer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She brings to this role a lifetime of experience, passion and a proven track record as a leader for change. Inspired by the aforementioned education and experiences, she founded the Orthopaedic Diversity Leadership Consortium, LLC, a pioneering organization whose mission is to elevate the necessary components of inclusive leadership in orthopaedic surgery through network and strategy development.

Dr. Taylor deeply values leadership, diversity, and inclusion. She is known for embracing differences among people and making sure that everyone as a “voice at the table” so that together we can achieve so much more.

As a proud member of the Duke Community, she is heavily committed to various aspects of leadership, including her service as the Chief of Surgery and Medical Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke Raleigh Hospital. She is the Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Orthopaedics, working with colleagues and institutional leaders to develop thoughtful strategy and best practices toward belonging. For over a decade, she has worked closely with pipeline programs and national organizations that strive to promote successful pathways into orthopaedic surgery for populations that are under-represented in this field.

Dr. Taylor achieved her Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering Science from the University of Virginia in 2002. She obtained her medical degree from the Duke School of Medicine and then returned back to the University of Virginia to complete orthopaedic surgical residency training, including a year of productive tissue engineering research under the guidance of Dr. Cato Laurencin. She then went on to complete a fellowship in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She joined the Duke School of Medicine faculty as a hand surgeon in 2013 and received her Master of Business Administration from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 2020.

Jeff Reierson

Vice President, System Clinical Strategy

M Health Fairview System

Jeff Reierson is Vice President of Clinical Strategy for the M Health Fairview System. His team leads the strategic planning process and drives strategy throughout the $5bn Fairview clinical enterprise. 

Reierson has over 15 years of global healthcare experience at Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, and Tactile Medical driving portfolio strategy, business development (M&A), and marketing in the cardiovascular, neurovascular, and digital health space, including an expatriate role in Singapore. 

Reierson received his MBA from Duke University with a certification in Health Sector Management and his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in finance and a minor in Spanish.