Reed V. Tuckson, M.D.
For almost half a century, Reed V. Tuckson, M.D., MACP, has been devoted to optimizing health, wellbeing, and healing as a physician and leader of a variety of health organizations. He has long been fascinated by the connection between the mind, body, and spirit, which has led him in a continuing exploration of spirituality’s role in health and healing. Dr. Tuckson’s interest in creativity and photography was sparked when he received his first Brownie camera when he was ten years old.
Throughout his career, Dr. Tuckson has been passionate about bringing people together to create healthy individuals, families, communities, and a healthy nation. In all of his work, he has consistently employed creative tools such as radio, drama productions, music, poetry, and visual arts to assist people in understanding the science of health and the process of personally appropriate health decision making. When he was privileged to serve as the Commissioner of Public Health for his hometown of Washington, D.C. during the height of the HIV/Aids epidemic, he produced radio docudramas that provided real-world decision scenarios and that empowered people to protect their own health. During his residency and fellowship in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he hosted a weekly preventive medicine show on the local jazz station that engaged local playwrights to bring humor and pathos to health discussions.
Dr. Tuckson founded the Black Coalition Against COVID (BCAC) at the beginning of the Pandemic. This national initiative of leading minority medical schools, medical and nursing professional societies, along with community and faith-based organizations, had its roots in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C. where Dr. Tuckson reached out to local spoken word poets, film makers, musicians, and photographers to engage community residents in dialogues for protecting health. Dr. Tuckson now supports the next phase of the BCAC in Anacostia, the initiative called Optimal Health Outcomes East of the River, which is a community-led effort to link together the many community- and faith-based organizations to realize maximum leverage, coordination, efficiency, and results.
The doctor has been deeply affected by the increasing levels of distrust across our nation generally, but especially regarding health and scientific research. His growing spirituality has inspired him to find forums, mechanisms, and strategies to bring people together despite of or because of perceived differences. In 2024, he spearheaded the creation of the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science. The Coalition has united more than 100 organizations from across the entire spectrum of the health and related research ecosystem to address the trust gap through consistent improvement and respectful dialogue based on the primacy of listening.
Dr. Tuckson’s spiritual path includes attending a Catholic elementary school; serving throughout childhood and adolescence as an Episcopal altar boy; exposure to forms of Buddhism, Islam, and other spiritual disciplines. His early mornings are devoted to meditation or to his visits to his favorite river, followed by formulating a daily gratitude and intention for the day. Dr. Tuckson practices Tai Chi, enjoys cycling, and engages in regular exercise. He continues a commitment to lifelong spiritual learning and the exploration of the universal themes across disciplines.
During his education at Howard University and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Tuckson was fortunate to have performed regularly as a drummer in a local jazz collective and has been recorded on more than one occasion. He also played occasionally in Philadelphia during his training in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars fellowship, and while matriculating at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Dr. Tuckson is the former vice president of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; president of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; senior vice president of the American Medical Association; and executive vice president of United Health Group. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and has had advisory roles at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Tuckson serves on the boards of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute for Bioethics; the Hastings Center for Bioethics; KFF, the leading independent and nonpartisan source for health policy research, polling, and journalism; and Freedom House, which is dedicated to the core conviction that freedom flourishes in democratic nations where governments are accountable to their people.
Dr. Tuckson resides with his family in Georgia and is the father of three and a grandfather to two. He is proud to be the father and grandfather of two NCAA Rugby champions. He often speaks to groups on topics that all connect to his foundational concern: ensuring a safe, healthy, loving environment for generations to come. His great hope is that this work will free others to undertake their own expression of the wellspring of Love that rests in their hearts and bring that beauty into the world. Set aside fear and let your light shine!
