Josette Gbemudu

Josette Gbemudu is the Executive Director of Health
Equity and Social Determinants of Health at Merck.
Josette collaborates across all business functions at
Merck to develop and lead the execution of a unified
Health Equity strategy that is supportive of improving
equitable health outcomes for patients.
With over seven years at Merck, she has led Private
Sector Contracting in the U.S. Vaccines organization, led
Scientific Strategy for the Anesthesia and Surgery Marketing franchise, and played an instrumental role
in building Merck’s U.S. commercial strategy.
Prior to joining Merck, Josette was a Senior Policy Analyst at the National Governors Association. She
worked with a cross-section of highly ranked state and federal policy officials to develop innovative
solutions to state-specific challenges related to implementing health system reform. Josette was also a
Health Policy Fellow at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice where she focused
on the implementation of accountable care organizations (ACOs). She worked very closely with leading
integrated delivery systems and national commercial payers to help them construct ACO partnerships
and agreements. She has published extensively on the topic of ACOs.
Josette holds a Master’s degree in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics and
Political Science and received her undergraduate degree in Health Policy and Management from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,