Karen J. Minyard

Karen J. Minyard, Ph.D., is executive director of the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University, which focuses on long-term care, child well-being, health philanthropy, rural health, cancer, and access to care for the uninsured. Dr. Minyard is an advocate for restructuring local health care systems to focus on access to care and health status improvements, and an officer on the founding board of Communities Joined in Action, a national partnership dedicated to helping networks achieve health care access. She regularly consults with and presents to groups and organizations that seek to build health and access. Dr. Minyard is the former director of the Networks for Rural Health Program at the Health Policy Center, where she conducted an external evaluation of Georgia Medicaid"s primary care case management program. Her research interests include the study of health care markets; the relationships among identity, image, and willingness to make strategic changes in changing environments; and the role of targeted external facilitation and technical assistance in improving local health systems" clinical relevance and financial viability.