Todd Y. Park A.B. '94
2022 Candidate for Harvard Overseer: Todd Y. Park
How do you currently spend your time professionally? What prior roles in health care have you held?
Working to help make health care better for everyone has been a lifelong cause for me. I am currently co-founder and executive chair of Devoted Health, a rapidly growing company dedicated to the mission of dramatically improving the health and well-being of older people by caring for every person like they are literally family. I co-founded Devoted with my beloved brother Ed Park A.B. ’97 in 2017 and am incredibly honored to work with him and our 1400 teammates to endeavor to provide each of our Devoted members with the best care in the world -- the right care (both clinical and non-clinical) in the right place at the right time, delivered in a highly consistent, coordinated, and proactive way, saving, changing, and protecting lives.
Prior to Devoted, I served in the U.S. Government for seven years, first as Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, then as U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and finally as White House technology advisor based in Silicon Valley. My work in government included helping to make government data publicly available and accessible as fuel for health improvement and social good, attracting more top technologists into public service, and helping to dramatically expand access to affordable health insurance for millions of Americans. I am the child of Korean immigrants who came to the United States with virtually nothing. This country has given my family so much and means the world to us, and to have the opportunity to serve our country was an extraordinarily powerful and meaningful experience.
Prior to my service in government, I co-founded health information technology company Athenahealth in 1997 and co-led its development over more than a decade into a leading national provider of cloud-based software and services for physicians and health care practitioners. In 2008, I also co-founded Castlight Health, an innovative online health benefits platform company and pioneer in bringing health care price transparency to consumers. I have also served as a senior advisor to Ashoka, a global incubator of social entrepreneurs, where I helped launch a venture to bring clean water and medicines to rural India.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town in Ohio called Pickerington, near Columbus. My brother and I are very much children of the Midwest.
How did you come to study at Harvard? Do you have any particularly vivid recollections from your time at Harvard, and how did your time at Harvard shape your career?
I will never forget seeing Harvard Yard for the first time. It is still surreal to me that I got the opportunity to study at Harvard College. I met the love of my life there, Dr. Amy Geng A.B. ’94. I met amazing spirit-brothers and sisters there. I discovered and entered new worlds there. Explorations of justice, health economics, technological innovation, and more became inspirations for my future work. The entire arc of my life was changed by Harvard – by the people I met there and by the journey of the mind and heart we experienced together.
What keeps you occupied away from work (including family)?
My wife Amy and our two children are the center of my life. I still vividly remember meeting Amy for the first time, in our freshman dorm, Canaday Hall. It took me until sophomore year to convince her to go out with me, but we’ve been together ever since. Amy is my soulmate and best friend, and I am so profoundly grateful that we get to share our lives together.
What are some areas of health care or the life sciences where you think Harvard can have an important impact going forward?
I think that Harvard can and should have a significant impact on virtually every major aspect of health, health care, and life sciences. The breadth and depth of the University’s capabilities across these areas are astounding. And it would be particularly powerful to see the University increasingly marshal these capabilities in concert to advance progress on missions that benefit from a multi-variate, interdisciplinary approach – for example, combining policy, medical, public health, care delivery, scientific, engineering, business, legal, and economic expertise to help imagine and support the development of a future health care system that makes living a longer, healthier life truly possible for everyone.
Todd Y. Park
A.B. ’94 magna cum laude
Los Altos Hills, CA