What does it take to step into something when there isn’t a roadmap?
Dr. Alexis Travis has done that more than once.
At 28, in her first directorship, she was asking hospital leaders across Massachusetts to change maternity-care practices.
Years later, she became the first person of color to lead Michigan’s aging network.
And today, she’s building a model for health and well-being at Michigan State University that didn’t exist before she arrived.
But Dr. Travis isn’t only interested in what it takes to go first.
She’s also asking what it would look like for public health to get there first.
What if, instead of responding after something has already affected our health, public health was there at the beginning?
Meet Dr. Alexis Travis ✨
Alexis Travis, PhD, is a public health and wellbeing executive, systems strategist, and nationally recognized leader working at the intersection of population health, mental health, organizational culture, and leadership. With more than 20 years of experience across higher education, state government, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations, she has built her career around a fundamental question: How do we design healthier systems, cultures, and institutions so people can actually thrive?
Dr. Travis serves as the inaugural Senior Associate Vice President for University Health and Wellbeing at Michigan State University, where she leads an integrated health and wellbeing enterprise serving more than 68,000 students, faculty, and staff. She led MSU’s first university-wide health and wellbeing assessment and used that work to help shape the university’s first comprehensive wellbeing strategy. She also created the Spartan Wellbeing Collective, bringing together health promotion, mental health, clinical care, accessibility, employee wellbeing, and student support around a shared vision of a healthier university. Under her leadership, MSU adopted the Okanagan Charter and became a Health Promoting University.
Before joining MSU, Dr. Travis served as Senior Deputy Director of Public Health Administration and State Health Official for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, where she provided executive leadership for a $1.75 billion public health portfolio and more than 1,200 employees. She helped lead Michigan’s COVID-19 response and vaccination strategy and advanced statewide work in public health modernization, health equity, aging, workforce development, and community wellbeing. She was the first person of color to lead Michigan’s Aging and Adult Services Agency, championed Michigan’s recognition as an AARP Age-Friendly State, and launched the state’s Direct Care Worker Advisory Committee.
Throughout her career, Dr. Travis has challenged traditional approaches to public health by focusing not only on services and programs, but on the systems, cultures, policies, and leadership practices that shape health. She is particularly passionate about helping organizations move from fragmented approaches to wellbeing toward integrated strategies that improve both human and organizational outcomes.
A committed mentor and developer of leaders, Dr. Travis serves as Vice President of the Michigan Public Health Institute’s Board of Directors, Trustee for Common Ground Crisis Services, and Chair Emeritus of the ASTHO Alumni Society. She is a de Beaumont Foundation 40 Under 40 in Public Health honoree and an alum of Harvard Business School’s Women’s Leadership Forum and Stanford Medicine’s Chief Wellness Officer program.
Dr. Travis holds a PhD in Public Health from Walden University and a master’s degree with honors in Pharmacy from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. Her work reflects a belief that the future of public health is not simply about treating illness, but about designing the systems, workplaces, institutions, and communities that make health and wellbeing possible.
Conversation Highlights 🎙️
- How Dr. Travis learned courage from her mother and grandmother—and came to recognize courage in her own choices.
- What it means to step into leadership without a roadmap, especially when you are the first.
- How mentors, sponsors, and leaders can create conditions that help people thrive.
- Why Dr. Travis is working to make health and wellbeing part of the university itself—not simply a collection of services.
- What could change if public health helped shape new technologies and systems from the beginning instead of responding after the consequences emerge.
“I think what I know about courage came from osmosis from those around me.” — Dr. Alexis Travis
Stay in Touch 🔗
With Dr. Alexis Travis
LinkedIn ↗: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexistravisphd/
University Health and Well-Being at Michigan State University
Website ↗: https://uhw.msu.edu/
With Dr. Kristi McClamroch
LinkedIn ↗: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch
Follow for weekly reflections on courage and leadership ↗: http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6
Speaking & Leadership Development 🤝
Dr. Kristi McClamroch partners with organizations navigating complexity through keynote presentations, workshops, and leadership development.
Her work helps leaders better understand themselves, one another, and the conditions that shape what’s possible.
To explore speaking or consulting opportunities, connect on LinkedIn ↗ or visit Courageous Public Health ↗.