Dr. Nkem Okeke is a global serial entrepreneur, investor, physician executive, global health & economic development strategist. She has a successful career spanning over two decades – including overseeing the cost containment & financing innovative hub for a $2 billion fortune 500 company: delivering over $150 cost savings.
Currently through her healthcare companies (Medicalincs & Healthlincs), Dr. Nkem and her team advise and support healthcare leaders and organizations on strategic solutions to enhance implementation framework strategy, improve operational efficiencies and outcomes, and increase revenue volume/revenue streams. Although Dr. Nkem began & enjoyed her career in clinical practice, she decided to take an unconventional path that combines her love for transformative care delivery, and her passion for business & economic development. She expanded her career from the patient bedside to healthcare business administration, to diaspora-backed economic development.
BIND Associates is her brainchild through which she drives an innovative approach to leverage the collective entrepreneurial prowess of high net-worth diaspora firms to drive business growth, investments, & economic growth in Africa. With only 17 months of BIND’s existence, under her leadership, BIND now consists of 20+ diaspora & African businesses and 5 key partners – representing 8 African countries, across 10 industry sectors – with a collective revenue of $250+ million, and trade agreements in 2 African countries.
She currently serves on a number of boards and advisory councils including: Board Trustee of Black Women’s Health Imperative, International Committee Member – DC Chamber of Commerce, Maryland Health Care Commission Advisory Council member on Primary Care Transformation (appointed by the Maryland Secretary of Health, Board Trustee of Lasell Village, Maryland Dental Action Coalition, and Member of the Forbes Business Council.
She is widely recognized for her work. Her awards include: 2025 Women Making History, Montgomery County Commission for Women; 2025 & 2023 Most Admired CEO; 2025 President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service by President J. Biden; 2025 Maryland Top 100 Women; 2024 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award; 2024 Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise; 2023 Prince George’s African Diaspora Advisory Board Award; 2023 Healthcare Heroes, Lifetime Achievement Award; 2022 Healthcare Executive of the Year Award (Foreign Investment Network); 2022 International SHE Awards Honoree, Dubai, UAE; and 2021 Enterprising Woman of the Year Global Award.
Dr. Nkem obtained her medical degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria, and completed her training at KorleBu Teaching Hospital, University of Ghana as a General (Family) Practice Physician. She completed a clinical observership program at University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She then obtained triple-master’s degrees in Business Administration, Project Management, and Public Health (from George Washington University, DC & Tulane University, LA). She also completed her fellowship in Clinical Data Analytics, at Johns Hopkins University, MD; and is certified in Project Management (PMI), Lean Six Sigma (Johns Hopkins), Change Management (Prosci), and AI Business Applications. Dr. Nkem is currently a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Nkem draws inspiration from her unique background, from her 3 lovely daughters, and from her vision to – improve global health outcomes, and bridge Diaspora-Africa trade to grow economies & create generational wealth!