Medical Center Hour
Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | 12:00 to 1:00
In Person at the Pinn Hall Conference Center Auditorium
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89105967067
Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture
Beyond Band-Aids and Duct Tape: Building Systems That Care
Lauryn Walker, PhD, MPH, BSN
Chief Strategy Officer, Virginia Center for Health Innovation
Executive Director, Research Consortium at
Virginia Center for Health Innovation, Midlothian, VA
Dr. Walker is the chief strategy officer and research consortium executive director for the Virginia Center for Health Innovation (VCHI). Through her dual roles, Walker leads the Virginia Task Force on Primary Care’s economic policies, recommendations, and multi-payer initiatives, and builds partnerships across Medicaid stakeholders to address key state priorities.
Prior to joining VCHI, Lauryn was chief of population health and a senior advisor to the chief actuary and chief strategy officer of North Carolina Medicaid, where she supported design and implementation of health home initiatives, transition to managed care, and Medicaid expansion. She’s also worked as senior advisor to chief health economists and director of data analytics for Virginia’s Medicaid program, supporting Medicaid expansion, the development of its Office of Value-Based Purchasing, Office of Quality and Population Health, and the Office of Data Analytics.
President of the board of Richmond Aging and Engaging, a community-based organization dedicated to reducing social isolation among Virginia’s low-income seniors, Walker is a registered nurse and member of the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps. She earned nursing degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Virginia Commonwealth University.
Provided by the University of Virginia School of Medicine and School of Nursing
Medical Center Hour is free of charge and open to the public.
Watch Medical Center Hour recordings at: https://www.youtube.com/user/UVAMCH
About
Medical Center Hour is the School of Medicine’s weekly public forum on medicine and society. Produced by the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics, the series includes History of the Health Sciences Lectures co-presented with Historical Collections in the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. The series is also home to several other annual lectures of the Schools of Medicine and Nursing.
Medical Center Hour is presented on Wednesdays from mid-September through March at midday (12:00-1:00 pm) in the medical school’s Pinn Hall Conference Center Auditorium, and on Zoom, unless otherwise announced. All programs are free and open to the entire university and the public.
Most programs are video recorded for educational purposes and, with speakers’ permission, made available through UVA Library and also on Medical Center Hour’s dedicated YouTube channel, UVAMCH. Because recordings must be closed-captioned before being posted, there will be delays in online program availability.
PLEASE NOTE: The post activity evaluation for each program will only be available 15 minutes prior and 7 days after each session. Credit will not be issued after the evaluation period has closed. Information on how to submit an evaluation is at the bottom of every handout.