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    Karen Garvey, MPA/HCA, BSN, DFASHRM, CPHRM, CPPS

    Vice President, Safety & Clinical Risk Management, Chairperson, Workforce Safety Program
    Parkland Health

    Karen Garvey serves as the Vice President for Safety & Clinical Risk Management for Parkland Health in Dallas, Texas. Reporting to the Chief Quality & Safety Officer, her current responsibilities include health system oversight of Regulatory & Accreditation, Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, Quality & Safety Education. She has been the system lead for Parkland's journey to becoming a high-reliability organization. Additionally, she is the executive sponsor for the SPARKs (Supporting Parkland Staff) Peer Support Program and the chairperson for enterprise Workforce Safety Initiatives, which involves proactive and reactive strategies to decrease violence against our workforce. She serves on local, state, and national committees collaborating to address this significant issue collectively. She is often requested to speak in forums about various activities implemented to address the issue. In March 2023, Karen testified in Austin, Texas, on behalf of Parkland to the Texas House Committee on Public Health in support of HB 240 to prevent workplace violence against all healthcare workers. The bill was passed and signed into law on May 15, 2023, and the penalties for those harming any healthcare worker will be more severe. The law became effective September 1, 2023, with all Texas healthcare organizations to com.ply by September 1, 2024. She is also the 2025 Chair of the Dallas-Fort Worth Workplace Violence Committee and is often sought to speak on workplace violence mitigation strategies and building peer support programs.
    Karen is also active in the American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers (ASHRM), having served two terms on the ASHRM Advisory Board, and continues to be an active ASHRM Faculty member for the CPHRM Review Course . She has been active with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as a national teaching faculty for the Patient Safety credential and has been a lead for the IHI Workforce Safety & Wellness Cohort. Karen received the DFW Great 100 Award for Nurses in 2017, the Healthcare Risk Management Leadership Award from ASHRM in October 2019, the ASHRM Presidential Citation Award for ASHRM in October 2021, and the Parkland inaugural DAISY Award for Nursing Ethics. Karen was highlighted as a “Leader to Watch” in the October 2023 AONL Nurse Leader publication, was a panelist for the AONL Workplace Violence Symposium in December 2024 and has published on the topic.

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