2026 Tulane Medical Alumni Association Outstanding Alumni Award
Karen Bollinger DeSalvo is a nationally recognized physician and public health leader whose career has shaped healthcare delivery, policy and technology. She most recently serves as the inaugural chief health officer at Google, where she led the company’s global health strategy and guided efforts to responsibly apply technology to improve health outcomes at scale for everyone, everywhere.
Dr. DeSalvo received her Master of Public Health from the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and her Doctor of Medicine degree from Tulane University School of Medicine. She then continued her studies at Harvard University where she completed her Master of Science in clinical epidemiology.
Following Hurricane Katrina, DeSalvo was a New Orleans community leader, building an innovative and award-winning model of neighborhood-based primary care and mental health services for low-income, uninsured and other vulnerable individuals.
She further served as a professor of medicine and vice dean for community affairs and health policy at Tulane School of Medicine and as president of the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum and the National Association of Chiefs of General Internal Medicine. She has also served on the boards of the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Society of General Internal Medicine. Dr. DeSalvo is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and serves on the Council. She is on the Board of Directors for Welltower and Cityblock Health.
DeSalvo was New Orleans’ health commissioner and senior health policy advisor to then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu, before joining the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she was the acting assistant secretary for health and served as the national coordinator for health information technology.
She has received many honors, including recognition as a “Woman of Excellence in Health Care” by the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus. In 2013, Governing Magazine named DeSalvo one of nine Public Officials of the Year. The American Medical Student Association recognized her with a Women’s Leader Award in 2014. Modern Healthcare named her one of the 100 most influential people in health care over several years. In 2020 she received the Lisa P. Jackson Professional Achievement Award from the Tulane Alumni Association. She was included on the TIME100 Health 2025.
