Karen Chaves, M.H.S.

CDR Karen Ho Chaves is the Director of the Division of Quality Measurement and Improvement in the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). She oversees programs responsible for providing the evidence, methodology, and research for improving healthcare in the U.S.

These include a quality measurement program called the AHRQ Quality Indicators, and patient experience surveys for quality improvement called the Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS) and Survey on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS). She also led the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report, a Congressional annual report on the status of healthcare quality and disparities in the U.S. for over a decade. She serves as a Federal Career Coach to provide career development support for leaders in federal service.

Previously, she was a Public Affairs Advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She has been a United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer since 2009. She has deployed in public health and emergency response for numerous missions including ASPR/Secretary’s Operation Center for hurricane response, Operation Allies Welcome, Unaccompanied Children, and COVID-19. She has served the Chair of the USPHS Asian Pacific American Officers Committee.

She has also served as the Health Policy Advisor at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  Prior to her federal service, she worked as a community advocate with the NICOS Chinese Health Coalition in San Francisco, California. Commander Chaves received her Master of Health Science in Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley.