VP of SDOH & Health Equity
Clealink Partners
Karin VanZant is the Vice President of National Social Determinants of Health & Health Equity at Clearlink Partners. Karin has an extensive background in establishing strategic partnerships between managed care and community-based organizations focused on social care models and coordinating efforts within safety net programs. She leads the efforts to assist state, health plan, and provider partners to integrate SDOH & health equity into all aspects of their care model designs at Clearlink.
From 2015 to 2022, Karin led the national strategy for SDOH at CareSource and the full integration into its population health model. She built Life Services®, CareSource’s brand of SDOH partnerships, programs, and pilots. The largest program of the Life Services brand is JobConnect™, a workforce development program that assists CareSource members with full-time, permanent employment. The program has a 26:1 return on investment across multiple state-funded programs. For every 1,000 CareSource members who become employed, there is an annual $83 million in savings in taxpayer dollars.
Prior to CareSource from 2005 to 2015, Karin was the co-founder and Executive Director of Think Tank, Inc., helping organizations, communities, and system leaders who were addressing issues of poverty in noncollaborative and interdisciplinary ways that involved individuals with lived experience and focused on relationships vs. deficit models.
Karin has an MPA in Public Administration (2008) and a BA in Social Work (1998) from Wright State University. She is an Adjunct Professor at Antioch Midwest University and Wright State University on subjects including US Hunger and Poverty, Justice and Equity, Introduction to Human Services, Grant Writing, Leading Change, Coaching as Management, Holistic Case Management, and Emotional Intelligence. She lives with her husband and two boxer dogs in Springfield, Ohio and is a mom to one son and grammy to one precious granddaughter.
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Socially Determined: The Healthcare Executive's Role in Health Equity (36H)
Monday, March 24, 2025
4:30pm – 5:30pm CT