Kara Odom Walker
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Jefferson Medical College, MD, 2004
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, MPH, 2003
University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health, MSHS, 2009
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, 2012 – 2017
Kara Odom Walker MD | |
|---|---|
 Walker at TANF Awards of Excellence in 2018 | |
| Secretary of Delaware Department of Health and Social Services | |
| In office February 6, 2017 – June 2020 | |
| Governor | John Carney |
| Personal details | |
| Alma mater | University of Delaware, BS, 1999 Jefferson Medical College, MD, 2004 Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, MPH, 2003 University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health, MSHS, 2009 |
| Previous Workplaces | University of California, San Francisco, 2010 – 2012 Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, 2012 – 2017 |
| Current Workplace | Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children |
Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS is a health policy leader and serves as the Chief Population Health Officer at Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, where she leads all aspects of population health strategy, research, innovation and implementation. Her scope of responsibility includes the advancement of the overall health and well-being of children, both broadly and among the populations served by Nemours Children's. Dr. Walker is a board-certified, practicing family physician.
Dr. Walker also leads Nemours Delaware Valley primary care network and its Value-Based Services Organization. She collaborates with Nemours operational leaders and shares accountability for managed care initiatives, including medically complex case management, school-based wellness programs and other services for specific populations.
From February 2017 to June 2020, she served as Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. Prior to holding that position, she served as the Deputy Chief Science Officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Odom Walker attended high school in Bear, Delaware and graduated as valedictorian from Caravel Academy high school.[1] She then attended the University of Delaware where she graduated cum laude with her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1999.[2] She then attended Jefferson Medical College, where she received her Doctor of Medicine in 2004. During that time, she also received a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins University in 2003.
Odom Walker then moved to California to complete her residency training specializing in family medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She then became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also completed a Masters of Health Services Research in 2009.[1] During her time there, she studied how hospital closures impacted underserved minority populations in Los Angeles.[3]