Karen R. Stewart, MD is the Chief of Behavioral Health for The Southeast Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Stewart is responsible for development and implementation of the mental health and wellness care delivery system for Georgia’s 320,000 members. Her passion for this work is driven by her dedication to creating equitable and excellent mental health care that centers health equity and excellent outcomes for patients. Dr Stewart is aware that excellent clinical outcomes are best achieved by developing a workforce that is able to do top scope work aligned with the organization’s vision and the clinician’s passion for serving in the field of healthcare.
Dr. Stewart has been a champion for integrating mental health into the primary care setting through her role as the National Clinical Lead for Collaborative Care for Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Dr Stewart has been able to champion the development and implementation of Collaborative Care programs in 7 of Kaiser’s 8 markets. This is an extension of her work with the Mental Health and Addiction Leaders of Operation (MHALO) for the national Kaiser Permanente team. MHALO centers critical work such as creating a zero suicide and overdose culture, focusing on measurement-based care, and providing delivery innovations like digital therapeutics. Each market has developed programming in these critical areas with Dr. Stewart serving as a subject matter expert for TSPMG’s care delivery leadership team.
Dr. Stewart is a board-certified adult and child adolescent psychiatrist who received her BS in chemistry from Spelman College and her medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine. She went on to complete her adult psychiatry residency and child and adolescent fellowship at Emory University. Dr. Stewart has served on the boards of trustees for Morehouse School of Medicine and the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association.