Kristi Henderson, CEO of Confluent Health: Curiosity is a Trait most Great Leaders Possess

Profiles in Leadership

Kristi Henderson is a healthcare leader, digital health pioneer, and clinician who advanced from a practicing nurse practitioner to CEO and is recognized as an industry thought leader for technology-forward healthcare companies. She has a proven track record of optimizing and executing profitable growth strategies, driving strong business operations, and leading differentiated clinical products and services. She is a cultivator of high-performing teams with a keen understanding of drivers of growth, profitability, and equity value creation, who also fosters a civic-minded culture resulting in a high level of collaboration and commitment. She is experienced in leading and scaling high-growth companies and owning & driving P&L results in geographically dispersed, multi-state, multi-site businesses. She boasts health leadership experience in academic and national nonprofit health systems as well as big tech and public pay/provider organizations, including two Fortune 5 companies.

She is the CEO of Confluent Health, a national value-based musculoskeletal health company, where she is responsible for expanding their nationwide services through the growth of community-based physical therapy clinics, workplace services, and virtual/digital solutions using the highest skilled therapists and innovative clinical pathways that optimize the latest in personalization and technology. ​

She was most recently the CEO of MedExpress and Optum Virtual Medical Group at United Health Group with former leadership roles at Amazon, Ascension Health, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She has a proven track record of delivering successful programs at scale that improve health and save money. She is known for her ability to execute and sustain these models in advance of them becoming an industry standard as evidenced by her first launch of a telehealth program in 2003 which is recognized as one of only two of HRSA’s Centers of Excellence.

She is the immediate past chair for the American Telemedicine Association. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and remains active in healthcare education providing guest presentations and serving as an adjunct faculty member. She is an honorary Dean at the University of Washington School of Nursing and an adjunct faculty member in Population Health at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas-Austin.She has testified before multiple U.S. Senate committees and given numerous presentations across the country, including a TEDx talk, to advance telehealth policy and share innovative new models of care.

A few of her other leadership roles include service as an executive board member for the Association of American Medical Colleges Telehealth Committee, advisor for the National Quality Forum’s telehealth committee and co-chair of the Telehealth Committee for the American Nurses Association.

Henderson received her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she was recognized as the 2019 Distinguished Alumna from the School of Nursing. She maintains national certification as a family and acute care nurse practitioner.