Executive Vice President and Provost, Michael K. Hole, M.D., M.B.A.

Dr. Michael Hole returns to Butler University, his alma mater, as Executive Vice President and Provost. A physician, professor, entrepreneur, and military officer, he leads Butler’s Academics and Student Experiences enterprise, advancing the mission to boldly innovate and broadly educate.

Provost Hole is from Darlington, Indiana, a 700-person farm town. The son of public servants, he is a ninth-generation Hoosier and first-generation college graduate. 

At Butler, Hole is also Professor of Health and Public Policy in the College of Health Professions and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Social Impact in the Lacy School of Business. He has over 70 publications on health and economic development, cited more than 90,000 times. Before returning to Butler, he taught business and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he led the Impact Factory, a hub for entrepreneurship and community service. 

Hole formerly served in the White House as Senior Advisor for Rural America. He also helped lead federal efforts to save people from overdose, contributing to the largest single-year decline in U.S. overdose deaths on record. 

A major-select in the 301st Fighter Wing of the U.S. Air Force, Hole is deployable to provide medical care during war and disaster. He was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2021 to 2026.

As a board-certified pediatrician, Hole has served incarcerated youth in correctional facilities and homeless families through a mobile medical clinic.

Hole has founded nine organizations, including StreetCred, a tax service for low-income families; Good Apple, a direct-to-door grocery company acquired by Farmhouse Delivery; and Main Street Relief, a support system for small businesses. He also served on CVS Health’s advisory board, chaired a nonprofit that eliminates medical debt, and co-led a venture capital and real estate investment firm. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and the 2023 Austinite of the Year.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush named Hole a Presidential Leadership Scholar in 2019, and President Joe Biden appointed him a White House Fellow in 2023. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Spanish interpreter, a case manager for domestic violence survivors, and the director of campaigns that funded a Ugandan school and a Haitian orphanage for children with disabilities. 

A public-school valedictorian and Lilly Endowment Scholar, Hole earned a BA in Spanish and Biological Sciences from Butler University, where he was named Most Outstanding Student and later served as a trustee. He earned an MD and MBA from Stanford University before completing his pediatrics residency at Harvard Medical School. 

Provost Hole and his wife, Kristen, have two young daughters who embody a truth Butler has championed since 1855: Girls Can Do Anything.