Kristina Box
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Kristina McKee Box
| nickname = Kris
| office = State Health Commissioner of Indiana
| appointer = Eric Holcomb
| successor = Lindsay Weaver
| predecessor = Jerome Adams
| term_start = October 16, 2017
| title =
| term_end = May 31, 2023
| governor = Eric Holcomb
| state = Indiana
| honorific_prefix = Dr.
| education = Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University School of Medicine
| honorific_suffix = MD, FACOG
| profession = obstetrician-gynecologist
| occupation = physician
| spouse = David
| children = Kathryn, Lauren, Jonathan, and Joseph
| birth_place = St. John's, Newfoundland
| image = COVID19 (49666644833).jpg
| caption = Box with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, giving a press conference on COVID-19 on March 16, 2020.
}}
Kristina "Kris" McKee Box is an obstetrician-gynecologist who served as the State Health Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Health from 2017 to 2023. She was noted for leading Indiana's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a focus on maternal health, infant mortality, and combatting opioid addiction.
Early life
Box was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, while her father was stationed as a dentist on a U.S. Air Force base.{{Cite web |last=Reports |first=From Staff |date=2021-10-25 |title=Trine presents honorary degree to State Health Commissioner |url=https://www.kpcnews.com/heraldrepublican/article_11711b28-2d09-56d5-a0d5-d70419ff03a7.html |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=KPCNews |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=Nov 9, 2018 |title=2018 Woman of Influence: Dr. Kristina McKee Box |url=https://www.ibj.com/articles/71138-woman-of-influence-dr-kristina-mckee-box |work=Indianapolis Business Journal |pages=5B |volume=39 |issue=37}} Box's father and paternal grandparents are from Terre Haute, Indiana, where she later grew up as well.{{Cite journal |last=Patrick |first=Rebecca |date=November 2020 |title=Physician in Your Corner: Dr. Box Rises to Historic Challenge |url=https://www.bizvoicemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AA_KristinaBox.pdf |journal=BizVoice Magazine |pages=29–33}} She explained that she was inspired to become a doctor during a sixth-grade health project on anatomy.
Box received her bachelor's degree in biology from Indiana University Bloomington. She received her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-12 |title=State health commissioner Box, who led Indiana's response to COVID-19, to retire |url=https://apnews.com/article/indiana-health-commissioner-kristina-box-retiring-73b9807ad773809358a72eee60c64ac2 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=AP News |language=en}}
Career
= Practicing physician =
Box was an obstetrician-gynecologist in within the Community Health Network—an Indianapolis-based hospital system—for more than 30 years.{{Cite web |last=Rudavsky |first=Shari |title=She's helped birth Hoosiers for 30 years. Now she's leading state's health department. |url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/09/18/shes-helped-birth-hoosiers-30-years-now-shes-leading-states-health-departme-efforts-keep-them-health/678037001/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=The Indianapolis Star |language=en-US}} She began her career at Clearvista Women's Care in northeast Indianapolis in 1987. As a practicing physician, Box served in surgical medical missions to Haiti and Bolivia for more than 10 years.
Beginning in 2015, Box was the lead physician for the Community Health Network's Women's Service Line, a service which connected women in need with free health screenings. In this position, Box created Community Health's multidisciplinary women's center.{{Cite journal |date=October–November 2017 |title=Welcome new State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box! |url=https://www.in.gov/health/trauma-system/files/trauma-times-oct.nov-2017-.pdf |journal=Trauma Times |volume=8 |issue=5}} She served at Community Hospital East on team treating substance use disorder in pregnant people. Box was a member of the Indiana Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative (IPQIC), which advises the Indiana State Department of Health, and served on the neonatal abstinence syndrome task force, studying the exposure of newborns to drugs in Indiana.{{Cite web |date=2017-09-18 |title=Indiana Names New Medical Commissioner |url=https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2017/09/indiana-names-new-medical-commissioner/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Indiana Public Radio |language=en}}
By 2017, Box began slowing down in her medical practice, planning to retire soon.{{Cite web |last=Rudavsky |first=Shari |title=Indiana health commissioner who led response to COVID-19 to retire |url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2023/05/12/indiana-health-commissioner-led-response-covid-19-retire-dr-kristina-box/70211342007/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=The Indianapolis Star |language=en-US}}
= State Health Commissioner =
File:Kristina Box meeting, March 2020.jpg
On September 18, 2017, Governor Eric Holcomb nominated Box to serve as Indiana State Health Commissioner, replacing Jerome Adams—who had resigned to become Surgeon General of the United States. Box took office on October 16, 2017. In his nomination, Holcomb called Box "uniquely qualified to lead our state’s efforts to curb infant mortality rates and attack the opioid epidemic".
After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indiana in early 2020, Box was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, as one of the faces of the Holcomb administration's response to the disease. Box regularly joined the governor in high-profile press conferences, during the announcement of state policies such as a mask mandate and lockdowns. Box was a strong public advocate for vaccines, and led the state's distribution efforts, including state-sponsored mass vaccine clinics at locations such as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.{{Cite web |last=Meador |first=Marissa |date=2023-05-12 |title=Box reflects on pandemic, health disparities as she departs state health commissioner role • Indiana Capital Chronicle |url=https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/12/box-reflects-on-pandemic-health-disparities-as-she-departs-state-health-commissioner-role/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Indiana Capital Chronicle |language=en-US}} During her time helming the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Box contracted the disease twice. She first tested positive in October 2020, before the availability of a vaccine, and then in January 2022, while vaccinated, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 omicron variant.{{Cite web |last=Rudavsky |first=Shari |title=Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box tests positive for COVID-19. Again. |url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2022/01/05/indiana-health-commissioner-tests-positive-covid-19-second-time/9101348002/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=The Indianapolis Star |language=en-US}}
Outside of her COVID-19 response, Box's tenure was noted for her successful advocacy, with Holcomb's administration, for a huge increase of public health funding in a conservative state.{{Cite web |last=Payne |first=Daniel |date=2023-07-13 |title=The secret behind one state's public health windfall |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2023/07/13/the-secret-behind-one-states-public-health-windfall-00105940 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=POLITICO |language=en}} In her last year in office, in 2023, the Indiana state legislature passed an increase in health funding from $7 million to $225 million, an increase of 1,500%.{{Cite web |last=Messerly |first=Megan |date=2023-07-13 |title=A red state boosted public health funding by 1,500 percent. This is how they did it. |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/13/red-state-public-health-funding-indiana-00105982 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=POLITICO |language=en}}
In November 2020, Box was named the Indiana Chamber's Birch Bayh-Richard Lugar Government Leader of the Year. Throughout her time in state office, Box continued to practice at Community Hospital North in Indianapolis, including performing 24-hour labor and delivery shifts.{{Cite web |last= |date=2019-07-08 |title=5 Questions with… Dr. Kristina Box, M.D., FACOG |url=https://bloomhf.org/5-questions-with-dr-box/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Bloomington Health Foundation |language=en-US}} Box reported the heavy demands of the job, sometimes working 12-hour days for 7-day weeks, in resigning in May 2023. Box announced her resignation on May 12, 2023, effective May 31, 2023; she was replaced by Dr. Lindsay Weaver.