Diversity in Life Sciences

Dr. Kelly Jean (KJ) Thomas Craig serves as the Executive Director of Evidence Development in Medical Affairs, supporting enterprise-wide clinical and health services research execution and evidence-based scientific communications at CVS Health. In this role, she develops and executes strategy within the Clinical Quality team to demonstrate the effectiveness of products, programs, and campaigns to improve preventive health, provide right care reporting, and advance health equity.

Prior to joining CVS Health, Dr. Craig was Deputy Chief Science Officer of Evidence-Based Practice at IBM Watson Health. She executed clinical informatics research portfolios on behalf of the Center for AI, Research, and Evaluation and Chief Health Office with academic and non-profit partners to advance the design, implementation, adoption, and utilization of digital health technologies to improve health, healthcare, and health equity. She formerly acted as Associate Chief Health Officer and Practice Leader of Literature-Based Solutions to prepare evidence-based deliverables that addressed the value of data analytics, AI, and digital health technologies for health and healthcare in government, life sciences, payer, and provider markets.

Prior to industry, Dr. Craig was a tenured Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, she synthesized and presented medical educational programming and its deliverables for many clinical areas with an emphasis in neuroscience, oncology, cardiology, metabolism, and immunology. She acquired grant funding to manage an undergraduate research laboratory and mentored students in life sciences.

Prior to academia, she was a Principal Investigator exploring the pathophysiology of disease in basic, translational, and clinical research projects leading teams at the NIA/NIH and a healthcare institution. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in oncology and endocrinology for preclinical product development and facilitated clinical trials management at a community hospital serving a diverse large population across a rural geographic region. She served on the community health steering committee for the design and execution of local programs to improve health and healthcare with a focus on equity-driven interventions.

She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University studying mitochondrial contributions to neurodegenerative disease etiology. Her dissertation covered the biological areas of neuroscience, metabolism, cell biology, and genomics. Dr. Craig also earned a teaching certificate in science communication.