Karen Albright, PhD, MSW, MA

Dr. Karen Albright is a senior investigator and the program director of rural health and specialty access at OCHIN. Karen also holds an appointment at the University of Colorado School of Medicine as associate professor of medicine and director of qualitative research in the Division of General Internal Medicine.

As a health services researcher and sociologist, her research agenda focuses on the social drivers of mental and physical health. She seeks to understand the structural and psychosocial factors influencing health behaviors and outcomes, identifying barriers to care and testing potential solutions for improving care. Much of her work investigates the perspectives of health care providers, staff, patients, and caregivers toward specific health care approaches, technologies, and experiences. Her goal is to develop a comprehensive, systemic understanding across multiple stakeholders and identify points of difference, miscommunication, or misunderstanding which can then be addressed and resolved.

She is an established qualitative methodologist and engagement scientist who believes strongly in the benefit of research that involves community members in meaningful and sustainable ways. Furthermore, she seeks to utilize community-engaged research methods as often as possible in her work. She believes in obtaining a deep understanding of processes, workflow, and norms within health care environments to improve system functionality and effectiveness. She has received training in human-centered design and systems science to support and advance that understanding. Her research has been funded by numerous grants from private foundations, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and national agencies and institutes, such as the National Institutes of Health, throughout her career.