Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH

Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, Secretary, State of Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, received a Doctorate of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA, and a Master of Public Health in Health-policy Management from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Dr. Odom Walker is interested in the impact of access to care over a patient’s life course and has a particular interest in the health of vulnerable older adults.

Cohort

2008-09

Projects

• “The safety net in south Los Angeles: Assessing unmet community needs after hospital closure.” Dr. Odom Walker’s RCMAR/CHIME-funded project was a community-based participatory study that assessed delays and unmet health care needs of South Los Angeles elderly residents in order to understand the effect of the closure of Martin Luther King Jr. – Harbor Hospital (MLK-Harbor) and emergency department and to identify the resources needed by the safety net facilities that provide much of the care in this area to those most vulnerable to these changes in access.