Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare - 2016

Woodson, 59, oversees the more than $50 billion Military Health System budget and is principal healthcare adviser to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Before his nomination by President Barack Obama in 2010, Woodson served as associate dean for diversity and multicultural affairs and professor of surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine. He was also senior attending vascular surgeon at Boston Medical Center. He holds the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve. His service included deployments in Kosovo in 2001 and Kuwait in 2003. Woodson also served as a senior medical officer with the National Disaster Management System, and was part of a response team following the Sept. 11 attack in New York City.