Barbara Obena
Clinical Instructor, Health Systems and Population Health
Senior Manager, Systems Alignment and Integration, National Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity , Kaiser Permanente
206-531-5647 | barbara.c.obena@kp.org
Research Interests
Health equity; population health; equity centered community design; quality improvement
Bio
Barbara Obena is clinical instructor and teaches population health in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health. She is a senior manager in systems alignment and integration with the National Equity, Inclusion and Diversity team at Kaiser Permanente, where she leverages problem-based learning and group facilitation and collaboratively infuses equity throughout operations at one of the largest integrated health care systems. She finds joy in working though equity-centered design, connecting the dots for collective impact, building and sustaining relationships, sharing power and moving ideas to action. Obena has worked for Neighborcare Health, the Washington State Department of Health and Community Health Plan of Washington, and also served on the boards of International Community Health Services and Creative Reaction Lab. She earned her MPH at the UW in the COPHP program.
Education
MPH Community Oriented Public Health Practice, University of Washington, 2013
BS Biological Sciences, University of California (Merced), 2009