William L. Roper

Dean of School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chief Executive Officer of the University of North Carolina Health Care System
Professor of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

M.D. University of Alabama School of Medicine
M.P.H. University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health

Dr. Roper began his career in public health in his home state of Alabama, where he was health officer for the Jefferson County Department of Health from 1977-83 and assistant state health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health from 1981-83.  After serving as a White House Fellow in 1982-83, he spent the next seven years in a variety of key positions in Washington, D.C., including special assistant to the president for health policy; administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, the federal agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid; director of the White House Office of Policy Development; and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy.

In 1990, Dr. Roper was tapped to lead the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  He joined Prudential HealthCare in 1993 as president of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research and was named senior vice president of Prudential HealthCare the following year.  He held that post until assuming the deanship at Carolina in 1997. 

Dr. Roper is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the Institute of Medicine Governing Council. Currently, he is vice chairman of the board of the Partnership for Prevention, vice chairman of the board of the National Quality Forum, a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a member of the board of directors of the UNC Health Care System, and a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships.  The author or co-author of more than 70 articles in publications such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, Roper has won numerous distinguished service awards from the U.S. Public Health Service, the Association for Health Services Research, the National Association of Health Data Organizations, Emory University, and the University of Alabama.