Michael Hole, M.D., MBA

Michael Hole, M.D., MBA, is a physician, executive, professor and military officer at The University of Texas at Austin, where he leads The Impact Factory, a hub for entrepreneurship and community service.

Hole was the White House’s senior advisor for rural America in the Executive Office of the President for former President Joseph R. Biden. He elevated small towns and rural communities in national policymaking and led federal efforts to save lives from overdose, contributing to the largest decline in U.S. overdose deaths ever. The son of public servants, Hole is a ninth-generation Hoosier and first-generation college graduate from an 800-person farm town in rural Indiana.

A board-certified pediatrician, Hole serves incarcerated youth in juvenile justice facilities. He also practiced “street medicine,” caring for families at homeless shelters and food pantries for several years.

At UT, Hole teaches policy, business and public affairs, earning multiple awards from colleagues and students for excellence in the classroom. He has 70-plus publications on health care, technology and economic development, cited over 72,000 times in the academic literature.

Hole is a captain in the 301st Fighter Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, deployable to rapidly build and operate trauma-ready hospitals during war and disaster. He leads a military mentorship program and is a Council on Foreign Relations term member.

Selected as the 2023 Austinite of the Year and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Hole has founded nine organizations, including StreetCred, a tax service for low-income families; Good Apple, a direct-to-door grocery acquired by Farmhouse Delivery; and Main Street Relief, a support system for small businesses. He also owns Hoosier & Company, a consulting firm for entrepreneurs.

Earlier, Hole was a Spanish interpreter, case manager for domestic violence victims and executive director of campaigns that funded a Ugandan school and a Haitian orphanage for children with disabilities. He also served CVS Health’s advisory board, chaired a nonprofit that eliminates medical debt and co-led a venture capital and real estate investment firm.

Former Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush named Hole a Presidential Leadership Scholar in 2019. In 2023, Biden appointed him a White House Fellow. Hole has been a Texas Health Institute trustee, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty faculty fellow, and World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

A public school valedictorian and Lilly Endowment Scholar, Hole studied at Butler University, where he was the top student, and now serves as a trustee. He earned M.D. and MBA degrees from Stanford University before completing a pediatrics residency at Harvard Medical School, becoming his family’s first physician. Hole now lives in Texas with his wife and daughters.