Michael J. Gifford

Michael J. Gifford has been a leading force in the fight against AIDS in the United States for thirty years. He currently serves as president and chief executive officer of Vivent Health.

During his tenure, Mike led the transformation of Vivent Health from a social service agency into the nation’s premier HIV health care provider. Known as a health care leader who applies the best principles of for-profit management and leadership to the nonprofit sector, Mike has helped grow Vivent Health from a $2 million to a $260 million organization. The Vivent Health HIV Medical Home, the only one ever approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is the country’s leading model for providing integrated health and social services to assure patients have unfettered access to primary and specialty medical, dental, mental health, pharmacy, and social services, regardless of ability to pay, in order to succeed. In 2010, his social entrepreneurism led to the creation of the Vivent Pharmacy, assuring that patients receive the medications they need and creating a new revenue source to help sustain and expand services. Today, Vivent Health patients are significantly exceeding national benchmarks and goals for health outcomes. Under Mike’s leadership, Vivent Health has also emerged as a leader in the fight against the COVID-19, opioid, sexually transmitted infection, and mpox epidemics.

Mike has expanded Vivent Health into a national organization through mergers and acquisitions of for-profit and nonprofit companies. This has led to the opening of HIV Medical Homes in Denver, Colorado; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; and Austin, Texas, highlighting 14 locations around America. Two additional states are scheduled to join Vivent Health in the next 12 months. This effort expands services driving better health outcomes for patients and helping to reduce health care costs. As a national leader in the evolution of service delivery to people with HIV, he has provided in-depth technical assistance to HIV, aging, and sickle-cell amenia organizations in more than 30 states. He is a regular guest lecturer at universities across the country and a business consultant to for-profit and nonprofit organizations, serves on several boards of directors, and regularly engages policy makers at the highest levels of government on health care and social justice issues.

Over his decade-long tenure as president and chief executive officer of Vivent Health, Mike has been a strong and consistent voice for overcoming racial and social equities in America. This work includes the near elimination of racial disparities in health care outcomes at Vivent Health and extends into broader society. Mike’s leadership has included active participation in CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, a national group of CEOs working to overcome racial injustice; creation of racial equity scholarships at two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and LGBTQIA+ equity scholarships at two public universities; and frequently speaking out against injustices in health care, food insecurity, and other policy areas and lobbying to overcome them.

Mike received his bachelor’s degree in government and international relations from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and is a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Executive MBA program. He and his wife, Donna, are proud parents of three adult daughters and reside in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.