Karen Wall, Ed.D., M.A., is Japanese-Irish, born in Japan, where her father was stationed with the U.S. Air Force and married her Japanese mother. She was raised in Hawaii, a military brat.
Karen began her military career in high school, serving in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). She studied at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1982. Karen trained at the Army’s Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing specialty course and was stationed in Fort Gordon, Georgia; Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Fort Carson, Colorado, eventually going to California and retiring in 2005 with the rank of major after 23 years of commissioned service.
Karen now works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a mental health nurse and as the memory care coordinator for the community living centers (CLCs) at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She provides support, training, consultation, and coaching for the staff working with veterans who live in the CLCs and who live with dementia, mental illness, and traumatic brain injuries. Karen specializes in military/veterans’ mental health, geriatric mental health and dementia care, post-traumatic stress disorder, and animal-assisted therapy/service dogs.
