Expertise
Public health, population health improvement, local wellness funds, health care strategic planning and evaluation, workforce, health equity and global health
Bio
Chris Parker is the director of population and global health at the Georgia Health Policy Center. He holds a leadership role in many of the center’s projects related to public health and health needs assessments as well as policy and program evaluation. Parker is a skilled facilitator who has guided a significant number of multisectoral, state and local organizational strategic and evaluation plans. He provides oversight to the center’s ongoing community health needs assessment efforts and has been in the role of directing and facilitating much of the organization’s health equity framework and support to clients. He has spent the last seven years studying and understanding local wellness funds and their ability to support and sustain community health. Chris leads the Legislative Health Policy Certificate Program aimed at enabling Georgia’s legislators to improve their decision-making skills, and he is Principal Investigator for the evaluation of a Public Health Training Initiative in Sudan and Nigeria. As a trained family physician, and board vice-chairman of Mercy Care, Chris has worked with underserved populations and faith-based organizations and brings his clinical and community linked experiences to addressing current and long-standing public health issues.