Cambridge Health Alliance
Institute for Community Health
163 Gore Street
Cambridge
MAUSA
02141
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Karen Hacker, MD MPH is the Executive Director of Institute for Community Health (ICH), a community research organization within CHA. She is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and received her MD from Northwestern University and her MPH from Boston University. Dr. Hacker is an internist, adolescent medicine specialist and primary care provider in a CHA pediatric setting. She has worked for over 15 years with diverse urban populations, including African-American, Latino, and Asian. She is also a public health and clinical researcher with excellent qualitative and quantitative skills who has been the PI on a number of federally funded (SAMHSA, CDC, and MCHB) projects. Dr. Hacker is currently the Director of the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) program for the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Dr Hacker has been interested in integrating behavioral and physical health for over 10 years and has examined child mental health from a public health perspective as well as within primary care. As the PI on the Healthy Tomorrows and the Integrated Care for Children grants (both funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of HRSA) she led efforts to incorporate behavioral health screening into pediatric primary care at CHA. She has used the data to answer a questions on mental health screening in pediatric primary care. Dr. Hacker also served as a consultant to the State of Massachusetts supporting primary care behavioral health screening for Medicaid children.