Raquel (Rocky) Bono is a board member at Humana (NYSE: HUM) and the Chief Health Officer for Viking Cruises, a C-suite position created in response to COVID-19 to restart the cruise and travel business while ensuring the health and safety of passengers and crews.
Prior to her work with Viking, Rocky served in the Navy for nearly 30 years, retiring as the first female surgeon to hold the rank of Vice Admiral. Rocky held numerous leadership positions during her time of service including: CEO and Director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), CEO and Director of the National Capital Region Medical Directorate, Command Surgeon for the U.S. Pacific Command and Head of Casualty Receiving during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm (1990-1991).
At DHA, Rocky led a joint, integrated combat support agency that enabled all branches of the U.S. military – Army, Navy, and Air Force – medical services to provide health care services to combatant commands. Rocky integrated an unprecedented $50 billion worldwide healthcare enterprise composed of 50 hospitals and 300 clinics that provide care to 9.5 million military beneficiaries; oversaw the Department of Defense deployment of the electronic health record (EHR) system; and advanced the development of the largest federated health system with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rocky has also served as a gubernatorial appointee in Washington State, where she was the Director of the COVID-19 Health System Response Management Program. She is currently a Senior Fellow with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and a Visiting Scholar of the University of Texas Value Institute.
Rocky received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas, Austin; her Master of Business Administration from Washington State University, Spokane; and her medical degree from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Lubbock. She completed her surgical internship and residency at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA and performed a trauma and critical care fellowship at the Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine, Norfolk.
Her numerous honors and awards include: the Bob Dole World War II Foundation Leadership Award; the American College of Surgeons Mary Edwards Walker Inspiring Women in Surgery Award; Federal IT Women in Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award; Modern Healthcare’s 50 Most Influential Clinical Executive Leaders, 50 Most Influential Healthcare Physician Executives and Leaders, and 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare; the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) Most Influential Women in Health Information Technology; University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus; Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award; and the first Asian-American women promoted to Vice Admiral (three star) in the U.S. Navy.