Alumni/ae Spotlight

Karen L. Cameron, CHE (MHA '87)

By Dana Perry (MHA '07)

Karen L. Cameron, CHE is the Executive Director/CEO of Central Virginia Health Planning Agency (CVHPA), a state-designated non-profit organization that coordinates regional health planning for twenty-seven municipalities in Central Virginia. At the CVHPA, Ms. Cameron is principally involved in advocacy for and support of initiatives aimed at meeting community health needs including: Certificate of Public Need (COPN) review; analysis and distribution of health-related data and information; community health development including needs assessment and other consulting services; and representation of community health interests at both the regional and state levels. Ms. Cameron began her current role in 1993 during which she has planned and implemented a triennial household-level locally-specific health needs assessment survey, significantly increased non-state revenue, and conducted state wide assessments of women’s and infants’ needs and cardiac utilization, just to name a few of her many accomplishments. Most recently, she is conducting an assessment of Virginia’s perinatal councils.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Cameron was Vice-President of Marketing and Planning at DePaul Medical Center in Norfolk, VA. She was also a health care management consultant for both Ernst & Young in Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA and Jennings, Ryan, Federa & Company in Atlanta, GA.

Ms. Cameron received a Masters of Health Administration from the Medical College of VirginiaVirginia Commonwealth University in 1987 and completed her administrative residency at Rome Hospital in Rome, NY. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Psychology from the University of Virginia and served as President of the Department of Health Administration Alumni Association of VCU/MCV Campus in 2002-03.

Currently, Ms. Cameron is chairman of Social Services Board of New Kent County, VA and is involved in the County’s Habitat for Humanity initiative. Karen, her husband Jeffrey, and 14 ½ year-old son, Glen, a basketball and soccer player, reside in New Kent County, along with their lovable dog, Suzy.