FAMU Announces Alumnus Tommy Duncan as 2026 Homecoming Convocation Speaker
Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida A&M University (FAMU) proudly announces alumnus Thomas “Tommy” Duncan, ‘03, founder and CEO of Ponos Care, as the 2026 Homecoming Convocation speaker on Friday, Oct. 23 at 10:10 a.m. in the Alfred Lawson Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium, 1800 Althea Gibson Way. The event, a highlight of FAMU Homecoming 2026: There Is No Place Like FAMU, is free and open to the public.
"Tommy Duncan's journey is the American Dream, built on a FAMU foundation," said President Marva B. Johnson, J.D. "From the School of Business and Industry to founding and scaling healthcare companies that have served tens of thousands of Medicaid members, he has built enterprises that strengthen both the economic health and the physical health of the communities they serve. That is what FAMU graduates do: they build, they lead, and they make America stronger. We want our students to see themselves in his story and know that they, too, can turn ideas into enterprises that create wealth, expand access, and make communities more resilient. Tommy's return to the Highest of Seven Hills is a call to the next generation of Rattlers to dream boldly, take calculated risks, and build without limits."
Duncan is a serial entrepreneur specializing in healthcare finance, managed care, and innovative delivery models, with more than two decades of experience building, scaling, and successfully exiting companies. At Ponos Care, the nation’s first specialty model focused on recurring acute pain (RAP) management, he is advancing a home-based and virtual model that combines responsible pain management with support for social determinants of health. Ponos currently serves approximately 25,000 Medicaid enrollees across Virginia and focuses on complex, high-cost chronic conditions Duncan has termed “The Painful Seven.”
“I’m excited to be back to FAMU, an institution that has given me so much. FAMU is a special place that’s breeds exceptional leaders of industry. I’m proud to be considered one of them, and hope to inspire many more. It is a tremendous honor to serve as this year’s Homecoming Convocation speaker,” said Duncan.
Prior to Ponos Care, Duncan founded Jetdoc, a telehealth platform created to make quality healthcare more accessible, immediate, and affordable. Jetdoc connected patients with licensed medical professionals through a virtual interface and paired telehealth access with negotiated prescription and in-person care discounts. The company reflected Duncan’s long-standing belief that consumers should be able to access healthcare when and where they need it.
Duncan’s most significant healthcare venture was Trusted Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care organization he founded in 2013. As CEO, he grew Trusted from a start-up into a multi-state health plan serving approximately 50,000 members. Under his leadership, Trusted established community wellness centers, developed care-management capabilities incorporating both clinical and social determinants of health, increased primary-care utilization, and reduced emergency-room and inpatient visits. In 2016, Trusted expanded through the acquisition of a Medicaid and Medicare health plan in Michigan from Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Duncan sold the Michigan plan to Henry Ford Health System in 2019, and in 2020 sold Trusted Health Plan to CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. His work in healthcare innovation earned him the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year® 2019 Mid-Atlantic Health Category Award.
Today, Duncan is also the founder of HIGHRISK World, an entrepreneurship platform built around the lessons he learned while founding, scaling, losing, rebuilding, and selling businesses. HIGHRISK World brings those lessons together through a book, curriculum, community, and proprietary archetype assessment designed to help entrepreneurs build durable, profitable companies on their own terms. The broader HIGHRISK ecosystem also includes the HIGHRISK clothing brand, a dark-luxury fashion label that extends the brand’s philosophy of confidence, ambition, risk, and reward into culture and style.
Duncan is a proud graduate of FAMU’s School of Business and Industry, where he earned his MBA magna cum laude. He also completed the Harvard Business School Key Executives Program. Beyond his work, Duncan is the loving husband of Nicole, and proud father of two children, Thomas Duncan III, and Sydney Duncan.
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