Rebekah Elizabeth Gee (born December 4, 1975) is an American physician and public health policy expert who is Founder and CEO of Nest Health and served as the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health from 2016 to 2020. As Secretary, Gee led the expansion of Medicaid.

Early life and education

Gee was born in Bountiful,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, she is the daughter of Elizabeth (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Dutson) and E. Gordon Gee, an academic administrator. Gee is the parent of five children, including identical twins; she lives in New Orleans. Gee attended Columbia College, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in American History in 1997. She then received her

Master of Public Health The Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMSPH) and the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) are interdisciplinary profes ...

from the

Mailman School of Public Health The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (formally the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health) is the public health graduate school of Columbia University. Located on the Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus in the ...

at Columbia University in 1998, focused in Health Policy and Management. Gee went on to earn her

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

from the

Weill Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 2002, completing her residency in

obstetrics and gynecology Obstetrics and gynaecology (also spelled as obstetrics and gynecology; abbreviated as Obst and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, and t ...

through

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...

and

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

in 2006. Gee was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and in 2009, Gee obtained her

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in Health Policy Research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. Gee is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Career

Gee is an obstetrician/gynecologist and founder and CEO of Nest Health. Nest Health has been recognized as one of ten most promising hybrid health care companies and one of 150 most promising digital healthcare companies in the world by CB insights. From 2020 to 2022, Gee was CEO of Health Care Services for Louisiana State University. From 2016 to 2020, she was Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, where she led the expansion of Medicaid and helped develop an innovative subscription drug payment model that allowed the state to provide unlimited access to highly active anti-

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection period, people often have mild or no symptoms. Early symptoms can include ...

medication ( sofosbuvir/velpatasvir) for its HCV-infected Medicaid and incarcerated populations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gee, Rebekah 1975 births American gynecologists American obstetricians American public health doctors 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians Columbia College (New York) alumni Cornell University alumni Living people People from Bountiful, Utah State cabinet secretaries of Louisiana University of Pennsylvania alumni Women gynaecologists Members of the National Academy of Medicine American women public health doctors