Kari Allen-Hammer, PhD

Director of IHS
Faculty HCA

Dr. Kari Allen-Hammer is committed to the art of living a uniquely, and purposefully tailored life suited to one’s own inner vision. Her work involves assisting others with recognizing/discovering that vision and then making a way to embody that vision.  Her main area of study has been in integrative health and mind body medicine, however, during her doctorate program her specialization focused on organizational systems, which examined how large-scale change happens and how organizations as a whole behave. Her attention now lies in social change patterns as they relate to individuals and communities learning to value wellness, from the personal, to the familial, to the communal, to the ecological. She is particularly interested in the seemingly inherent, intuitive ability people have towards creating their own wholeness, and scaling the personal vision for wellbeing to the social level. Dr. Allen-Hammer believes, “…that when we really care about wellness for ourselves and others, we will create more harmonious living in the world, for everyone, including the planet and its lifeforms.”

Dr. Allen-Hammer’s credentials consists of BA Psychology, CSU Chico, MS MindBody Medicine, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, ad Doctorate of Philosophy, MindBody Medicine & Specialization in Organizational Systems. Dr. Allen-Hammer recently concluded a four-year research study, Demystifying Personalizing Wellness: A Classic Grounded Theory of Creating Wellness (2018). Prior to this study, Dr. Allen-Hammer designed a weekend retreat aimed at helping mental health professionals transform feelings of burnout and fatigue in Embodied Practice for Health and Wellbeing: A Healing Retreat for Mental Health Professionals Experiencing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue (2012).As stated by Dr. Allen-Hammer, “Being a scholar-practitioner in this field gives me a lot of latitude for influencing positive change. I hope to leverage my knowledge and experience in such a way that I can influence positive change across organizations.”