Dr. Sam Shekar is the Chief Medical Officer within Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector. In this capacity, he provides strategic clinical direction for the Health division and serves as an adviser to healthcare and public health organizations, government agencies, customers and partners on technology and policy issues in the medical and public health fields. Dr. Shekar also serves as director of the division’s Life Sciences program, providing guidance and leadership for Northrop Grumman’s bioinformatics-related programs and initiatives. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Dr. Shekar served as a physician consultant. Previously, he spent over 21 years as an officer with the United States Public Health Service. A former Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral, Dr. Shekar has held executive-level health policy and management positions at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (serving as director of the Bureaus of Primary Health Care and Health Professions). Dr. Shekar has also worked as a medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (providing advice and guidance on Medicare coverage and coding policy) and a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season, he served in Louisiana and Florida, directing the federal health response in Florida for Hurricane Wilma. Dr. Shekar is a board-certified Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and holds a medical license in the state of Maryland. In addition, he is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Translating Genomic-Based Research for Health and co-chair of its healthcare systems-focused committee. He earned bachelor's, master's of public health and doctorate of medicine degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.