Karin Omark, MPH, EdM

Karin Omark joined the California Diabetes Program in 2006. As the Area Health Promotion Specialist for San Diego, Orange and Imperial counties, Karin works to create linkages between the California Diabetes Program and health plans, healthcare professionals, people with diabetes, and community organizations to promote the implementation of the diabetes care guidelines and primary prevention strategies that will reduce the risk of diabetes and its complications.

Karin earned her Bachelor's degrees in Ethnic Studies and Spanish from U.C. Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University, and recently completed a Master’s degree in Public Health at UCLA. For the last ten years, she has worked in public health and social service organizations addressing diverse issues such as substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, and homelessness. Most recently, she was the Program Development Manager for a federally funded alcohol and drug abuse screening and brief intervention program that delivered services to patients in emergency departments, trauma centers, and primary care community clinics. As Manager, Karin was responsible for researching best practices, developing service protocols and training curricula, and creating quality assurance standards for the program, which was recognized as an Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Program by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.