Kalahn A. Taylor-Clark, Ph.D., J99, MG01
Dr. Kalahn Taylor-Clark, PhD, MPH recently joined Merck as Vice President, & Head of Social Business Innovation. She oversees the ESG, sustainability, global impact giving and partnerships, and impact investment portfolios for the company. Her scope also includes oversight of the Merck Foundation, Merck for Mothers, our Patient Assistance Program and Merck Impact Ventures. Dr. Taylor-Clark is also an adjunct faculty member at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University where she teaches Healthcare Organizational Leadership and Inclusive Leadership.
Previously, she served as Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation at Myovant Sciences. In this capacity she oversaw patient centered advocacy and digital innovation. Her team was responsible for driving transformative advocacy in the areas of women’s health and prostate cancer, addressing health equity, and advancing digital innovation strategies to improve patient experiences and outcomes.
From 2015-2021, Dr. Taylor-Clark served as Associate Vice President of the US Cardiometabolic Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy team at Sanofi. In 2020 she was promoted to Vice President and Global Head of Patient Centered Outcomes and Innovation at Sanofi. In this role she was instrumental in developing the Patient Informed Development & Health Value Translation department that expanded the team FTEs seven-fold and increased the budget ten-fold. Sanofi is now the only large pharmaceutical company with 100% of late-stage pre-clinical research and development staged programs, indications and clinical trials informed by patients.
Dr. Taylor-Clark also served as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics and Assistant Professor in Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University, where she provided strategic guidance on the development and evaluation of patient and consumer engagement activities for a range of stakeholders, including: private and public payers, hospital and integrated health systems, business groups, and policy leaders. Her work at GMU led to the development of Accountable Health Communities (AHC) in Vermont, which served as an exemplar for Medicaid’s $157 million expansion of Section 1115 waivers for non-medical care services in 2015.
She also served as the Director of Health Policy at the National Partnership for Women and Families, where her primary responsibilities were in providing strategic direction on a range of activities related to delivery system and payment reform, including: quality measurement, reduction of health disparities, patient and consumer engagement in patient-centered care delivery and the effective use of health information technology (HIT) to improve patient-reported outcomes measurement. From 2007-2011, Dr. Taylor-Clark led the Patient-Centeredness and Health Equity Portfolios in the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.
She holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University, an MPH from Tufts School of Medicine, and a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University. She serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees for Tufts University, and on the Board of Directors for Healthy Women. From 2007-2023 she served as President of the Board of Directors at Prevention Institute in Oakland, CA. She has one son, Dashiell (aged 12), and 2 fur babies (Peter and Baby) and lives in Arlington, VA. Dr. Taylor-Clark has also lived in Japan, Ghana and France, and is proficient in French.
Revised November 2024