Michael Hole, M.D., MBA

Michael Hole, M.D., MBA, is a physician, professor, military officer and entrepreneur at The University of Texas at Austin, where he leads The Impact Factory, the University’s hub for social entrepreneurship. He teaches business and public policy. Hole has 70-plus publications on health care, technology, economic development and more, and he has been cited over 65,000 times.

Most recently, Hole served as senior advisor for rural America in the Executive Office of the President at the White House. After losing his cousin to fentanyl poisoning, he also led federal efforts to save lives from overdose, contributing to the largest decline in U.S. overdose deaths ever.

Hole is a board-certified pediatrician. Before the White House, he cared for incarcerated youths inside Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, after years as a “street doctor” for families experiencing poverty and homelessness. Hole is a captain in the 301st Fighter Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, deployable to rapidly assemble and operate trauma-ready hospitals in war and disaster zones.

The 2023 Austinite of the Year and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Hole founded nine organizations, including StreetCred, a tax service for low-income families; Good Apple, a mobile grocery acquired by Farmhouse Delivery; and Main Street Relief, a digital support system for small businesses. He also owns Hoosier & Company, a consultancy focused on health technology. He served CVS Health’s advisory board, chaired a nonprofit that eliminates medical debt and led health care investments for a venture capital firm.

Earlier, Hole was a Spanish interpreter and case manager for domestic violence victims and led campaigns to fund a Ugandan school and a Haitian orphanage for children with disabilities. He was a Texas Health Institute trustee, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty faculty fellow, and World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

In 2019, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush named Hole a presidential leadership scholar. In 2023, former President Joesph R. Biden appointed him a White House fellow. Hole is a Council on Foreign Relations term member.

Hole is a ninth-generation Hoosier and first-generation college graduate from a small Indiana farm town. A public-school valedictorian, he studied at Butler University, where he was the top student and now serves as a trustee. Hole earned M.D. and MBA degrees from Stanford University before completing a pediatrics residency at Harvard Medical School, becoming his family’s first physician.