Claire Allen is enthusiastic about bringing together research and care delivery to improve care for patients, families, and communities. She joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in 2018, working as a senior implementation and evaluation associate focusing on learning health system projects in Kaiser Permanente Washington care delivery and on improving care in Federally Qualified Health Centers across the country. She continues to design, implement, and evaluate projects to improve patient care in health systems through the Center for Accelerating Care Transformation (ACT Center), and she is a manager of the Collaborative Science Division at KPWHRI.
Claire earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Washington’s Health Services program, where she received the Gilbert S. Omenn Award for Academic Excellence. During and after graduation, she worked at the Health Promotion Research Center — a Prevention Research Center with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — conducting qualitative research in English and Spanish. She also served as an interventionist in 30+ small, low-wage worksites across King County in one of the largest randomized controlled trials of a worksite health promotion intervention to date.
Prior to joining KPWHRI, Claire worked as a manager in the Quality Department at Swedish Health Services where she designed and implemented quality improvement initiatives focused on physician and staff quality compensation metrics, utilization and medical management, government programs, emergency department utilization, and patient experience.
Claire lives on Vashon Island with her partner, Adam, and their two spunky kids, Elora and Liana. They love adventures of all kinds — particularly ones that include animals, water, outside play, or good food — and they’re interested in any experience that is new.
Allen C, Coleman K, Mettert K, Lewis C, Westbrook E, Lozano P. A roadmap to operationalize and evaluate impact in a learning health system. Learn Health Syst. 2021 Jan 24;5(4):e10258. doi: 10.1002/lrh2.10258. eCollection 2021 Oct. PubMed
Hannon PA, Hammerback K, Kohn MJ, Kava CM, Gary Chan KC, Parrish AT, Allen CL, Helfrich CD, Mayotte C, Beresford SA, Harris JR. Disseminating evidence-based interventions in small, low-wage worksites: a randomized controlled trial in King County, Washington (2014-2017). Am J Public Health. 2019 Dec;109(12):1739-1746. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305313. Epub 2019 Oct 17. PubMed
Hammerback K, Hannon PA, Parrish AT, Allen CL, Kohn MJ, Harris JR. Comparing strategies for recruiting small, low-wage worksites for community-based health promotion research. Health Educ Behav. 2018 Oct;45(5):690-696. doi: 10.1177/1090198118769360. Epub 2018 Apr 16. PubMed
Helfrich CD, Kohn MJ, Stapleton A, Allen CL, Hammerback K, Chan KCG, Parrish AT, Ryan DE, Harris JR, Hannon PA. Readiness to change over time: change commitment and change efficacy in a workplace health-promotion trial. Front Public Health. 2018 Apr 23;6:110. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00110. eCollection 2018. PubMed
Kudos emphasized dedication to helping coworkers grow, providing opportunities.
Starette Canada, a patient partner, shares her experience at a recent conference and highlights gaps in patient engagement.
The division contributes to research across the institute with methodological and subject matter expertise.