Karen Duncan, MD, MBA, a board-certified pediatrician with more than 20 years of medical and executive leadership experience, has been named Chief Operating Officer for JPS Health Network.

Dr. Duncan joined JPS in 2017 as Executive Vice President of Community Health Services. She will begin her new role at the end of January 2020, when Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Whitman retires.

“With a background in pediatrics and years of executive roles, she has devoted her professional life to the improvement of public hospitals across the country, and she has done the same for us in her three years here. I have great respect for her, not just because of her extensive background and accomplishments, but because of who she is. She is a trusted partner who pushes each of us to be better every day,” said JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Earley.

Dr. Duncan has extensive experience working in large public health academic centers and has held executive leadership positions at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital and Chicago’s Cook County Health and Hospitals System. She came to JPS from Health Management Associates, a healthcare consulting firm where as a Principal, she consulted for large publicly funded hospitals systems, government entities and managed care plans.

Dr. Duncan received an MD from Emory University School of Medicine. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry at Smith College and completed the Executive MBA Program at Georgia State University.

Dr. Duncan was also named a new member of the DFW Hospital Council Board of Trustees for 2020.