Sema Sgaier, Ph.D., is CEO and co-founder of Surgo Health, a public benefit corporation building an AI-powered behavioral intelligence layer for health care. Surgo Health uncovers drivers of health — including people’s beliefs, barriers and behaviors — and transforms that intelligence into scalable products to help health care organizations improve outcomes, reduce costs and advance equity.
With more than two decades of experience in global health and data-driven innovation, Dr. Sgaier is a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded Surgo Foundation and Surgo Ventures, leading strategies to address public health challenges through data, analytics and product development. She also served as an initiative lead at the Gates Foundation, working across programs in India and Africa to apply data and product development approaches to large-scale health efforts.
In addition to her executive roles, Dr. Sgaier has contributed to academia and policy. She has held teaching roles at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Washington and has authored more than 60 scholarly publications. She serves on the board of directors of United States of Care and has been recognized as a rising talent by the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society. Her insights have appeared in major media outlets, including The New York Times.
She earned a doctorate in neuroscience from New York University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University.
