Stephen Ondra
Vice President, Center for Transforming Health,
Director, Health FFRDC
Dr. Stephen L. Ondra is vice president of MITRE’s Center for Transforming Health and director of the CMS Alliance to Modernize Healthcare (Health FFRDC). In this role, Ondra leads our collaboration with government, industry, and academia to achieve data-driven innovation in healthcare, public health, and social services. Ondra will continue to serve as the Center’s chief medical adviser, a role he began at MITRE, building partnerships with the private sector to promote health and well-being.
Ondra’s career has spanned the entirety of the healthcare ecosystem, including clinician, researcher, educator, entrepreneur, and policy expert. Ondra served as chief medical officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Health Care Service Corporation, founder of North Star Healthcare Consulting, LLC, and CEO of CygnusAI. He is a founding member of the Core Quality Measure Collaborative, a public/private collaboration among the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, America’s Health Insurance Providers, the National Quality Forum, and professional medical organizations.
During the Obama Administration, Ondra served as senior health policy adviser for health affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as in the Executive Office of the President. He was co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council for Health Information Technology and a member of the Implementation Deputy Group for the Affordable Care Act.
Ondra was a professor of neurosurgery, residency program director, and interim chair of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He led breakthroughs in surgical care and developed multiple medical devices to improve patient care and outcomes. He is a trustee of Illinois Wesleyan University and other charitable boards.
An Army veteran, Ondra was awarded a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for his service during combat deployments in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He has also chaired scientific advisory boards for the Department of Defense.
Ondra attended the U.S. Military Academy West Point and holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Illinois Wesleyan University and a medical degree from Rush University.