Overview
Dr. Jean Spaulding is an accomplished doctor, board director, and trustee. She served 11 years on the board of Cardinal Health Corporation (NYSE: CAH), one of the largest U.S. healthcare companies, during a period of industry transformation, strategic acquisition, and growth.
As an executive coach at The ExCo Group, she works with senior executives across numerous industries in the private and public sectors.
"I trusted Jean, and I’ve been on the other side of this through executive development, where I’ve been coaching people. I know what that relationship is like… but this is more intense and at a higher level. The relaxed conversations gave us the space and time to go deep and then go off for a while and then come back to work. I have some real, strategic things to work on, and that’s valuable."
– Dean, Leading Public Research University
Career History
In addition to her work at The ExCo Group, Spaulding is a Trustee of The Duke Endowment, one of the nation’s largest private foundations, which has awarded more than $3.4B in grants since its inception. As a Trustee, she has chaired the Healthcare Committee and Childcare Committee, sat on the Education Committee and Human Resources Committee, and Chaired the Trustees and Governance Committee. Prior to becoming a trustee, she served on the board of directors of Duke University and as Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs. She is also on the regional Wells Fargo Bank board of directors in Durham, North Carolina.
During a period when the healthcare sector is experiencing massive disruption and the world is shrinking, Spaulding has had a front-row seat. She remains current in these discussions, having served as a senior adviser to Duke-National University of Singapore. She currently serves as ombudsman of Duke University Medical School and Health System. She has served on the Durham County Hospital Corporation Board of Trustees, was a member of the Bi-National Health Commission between the United States of America and Mexico, and served on the City of Medicine Board of Directors Executive Committee.
In addition, she has served on Duke’s faculty as a clinical consultant and as an associate clinical professor. Spaulding has also been a consultant for Lilly Research Laboratories and an on-air talent and consultant for WTVD News, the ABC affiliate station in the Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, metropolitan region.
One of six women in her Medical School class of 100 students – and the first African-American female to graduate from the Duke University School of Medicine – Spaulding has long been a champion of diversity in all its forms. Her commitment to community service includes numerous leadership roles working with the Durham Public Education Network and March of Dimes Walk America, along with serving as a board director and Vice Chair of the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation and on the board of the North Carolina Museum of History. She was also the inaugural Chair of the State of North Carolina African-American Heritage Commission.
Personal
Spaulding holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, Columbia University and her M.D. from Duke University. In addition, she completed her residency and fellowship in psychiatry at Duke. She is the proud mother of two daughters and one granddaughter.
