Karen Horn brings more than 25 years of experience in public health, with expertise spanning emergency preparedness, infectious disease response, and global health program management. She currently serves as Deputy Director of the Public Health Practice and Global Strategic Information Center and as Technical Director of the Pacific Southwest Center for Emergency Public Health, both housed within UCSF’s Institute for Global Health Sciences.

From 2020 to 2023, Ms. Horn helped lead the design and implementation of California’s COVID-19 Virtual Training Academy (VTA+), a $33 million statewide initiative developed in partnership with UCLA and the California Department of Public Health. As Technical Director, she oversaw rapid training and support for thousands of public health responders, strengthening California’s workforce capacity during the pandemic.

Earlier in her career, Horn spent two decades developing, managing, and evaluating complex global HIV programs, with a focus on capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and multi-country program implementation. Across her career, she has specialized in bridging technical expertise with workforce development to advance effective, scalable, and sustainable public health practice.