Karen L. Fortuna, PhD, MSW, LICSW

Dr. Karen L. Fortuna is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and Co-Founder of the Collaborative Design for Recovery and Health. As an international collaborative of patients, peer support specialists, caregivers, policymakers and payer systems, the Collaborative uses community-based participatory research to facilitate the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital tools that leverage mobile health to address needs identified by community members from vulnerable populations such as older adults with multiple chronic health conditions and people with disabilities, rare diseases, and psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Fortuna has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications co-authored with patient partners, and averages 1-2 invited presentations per month at both national and international scientific meetings (including invited presentations at SAMHSA, NASMHPD, and many other organizations).  Dr. Fortuna has received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), National Institute of Mental Health, American Federation of Aging, Brain and Behavior Foundation, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, and the New York Academy of Sciences. Overall, she has been responsible for conducting or collaborating on more than 30 research projects including topics such as health disparities, self-management, patient engagement in digital technologies, user-centered design and community-engaged research, and has pioneered a new field of study “digital peer support”.

Dr. Fortuna is Chair of the Patient Engagement National Advisory Council to PCORI.  Dr. Fortuna was the recipient of the Japanese Agency for Medical Research and Development Research Proposal of the year, Ally of the Year Award from the Western Mass Peer Network, Alvin R. Tarlov & John E. Ware Jr. Award in Patient Reported Outcomes, and the Faculty Achievement Award from the National Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work.