Ken Hopper
Interim Chair of Medical Education, Assistant Dean for Health Systems Science Education
Ken Hopper, MD, MBA, is the Interim Chair of Medical Education and Assistant Dean for Health Systems Science Education at Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. In this role, he oversees student education in health care delivery, community health, population health, interprofessional skills development, continuous quality improvement, historic payment methodologies, and future-visioned value-based care models. Topics include outcomes-oriented patient care and engagement strategies, team-based care, community and population health, health finance, legal issues in care delivery, value-based care, and patient-centered health advocacy.
Dr. Hopper’s early career included hospital medical director leadership roles. He draws on more than 30 years of psychiatric practice and leadership experience in the design and continuous operation of a team-based care model that facilitates proactive care delivery across all provider types and patient conditions. His work has focused on meaningful improvements in patient outcomes and wellbeing for all involved in the health care transaction.
Dr. Hopper previously served as National Medical Director of Integrated Care for Anthem’s Government Business Division. While in this role, he led his team’s creation and operation of a value-based intensive care management program that helped those in society who fall between the cracks. Using the framework of the Collaborative Care model, Dr. Hopper also led efforts to integrate health behavior change and mental health care into multiple primary care clinics around the country.
Dr. Hopper also served as Vice President of Clinical Innovation and legacy Chief Medical Officer of Humana’s Behavioral Health Division, where he led his team to several innovative programs to help primary care doctors better prescribe behavioral health medications and partner with patients who had both mental health conditions alongside chronic medical conditions. He was a key leader in promoting, designing, and operating one of the nation’s largest, payor-originating integrated medical-behavioral telephonic care management program.
Most recently, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Medical Education and a physician development coach at the Texas Christian University Burnett School of Medicine. He facilitated and coached student professional identity, wellbeing, and the physician human-connectivity skills necessary for the evolving context of health care. He additionally authored, contributed to, and facilitated curricula on telehealth, value-based care, health finance, psychiatry, team-based care, interprofessional education, ethics, and multiple others.
Dr. Hopper earned a Bachelor of Science from Baylor University and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He completed residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr Hopper later earned his MBA at The University of Texas at Dallas with medical emphasis in partnership with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Hopper received the prestigious C. Frank Webber, MD award for outstanding service to the Medical Student Section of the Texas Medical Association.
During his career, Dr. Hopper has taken on leadership and task force roles within the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the Texas Medical Association, and the American Psychiatric Association. He has contributed to multiple articles and several book chapters on health innovation, patient and provider engagement, and process improvement.