Zoey Kernodle is a Research Assistant Professor and Interim Faculty Director of the UNC Center for the Business of Health (CBOH). As the center’s Director from its launch in late 2018, she led its strategy, research, and programs for eight years and built a community of healthcare professionals, students, faculty, and community members committed to improving health and well-being in North Carolina and beyond.

In her research, Dr. Kernodle examines the trade-offs in business practice and policy development that shape the US health sector and public health institutions. She uses interdisciplinary qualitative methods, policy analysis, and direct community engagement to examine how values, trust, and institutional structures connect those decisions to the communities they affect, and what this means for how leaders make decisions and become trustworthy.

Prior to joining UNC in 2018, Zoey worked in healthcare research and consulting at the Advisory Board Company in Washington, D.C.

She received a DrPH from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She has a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree from Emory University where she studied ethics and political philosophy, and a BA in religious studies from North Carolina State University. She serves on the board of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.