Lisa Palko brings more than 18 years of experience in clinical development, business development, program management, and medical publications to the OPEN MINDS team.

Dr. Palko is currently serving as Executive Director for Digital Mental Health where she is dedicated to revolutionizing mental health care. She also serves as the Medical Advisor at HealthSystem Innovations for the development of state-wide Medicaid population health program. At HealthSystem Innovation, she is responsible for business development and clinical strategy. She leads medical and clinical pathway development, including stakeholder engagement, to ensure the value proposition is being articulated for clients. In this role, she is part of the team creating a population health service module for the DHCS California Medi-Cal program.

Previously, Dr. Palko was the Vice President, of Medical Device, Scientific Medical Affairs and Evidence Generation at AKILI, Inc. While there, she built out and was accountable for medical affairs organization development including evidence generation, patient registry RWE development, and execution of all related deliverables for medical affairs/HEOR. She represented US Medical Affairs with the global functions of Commercial Development, CRD, R&D, Global Clinical Safety & Pharmacovigilance (GCSP), and served on the Safety Management team for key US products. She also oversaw business development and served as executive Subject Matter Expert (SME) for payer organizations, outside partners, and global companies seeking partners. Prior to her move to the Vice President position, Dr. Palko was their Senior Director of Medical Affairs.

Dr. Palko also previously served as the Senior Medical Director, Medical Affairs & HEOR at TRIS PHARMA. Here, she was an integral member of the FMD Field Medical Leadership Team, responsible for leading cross-portfolio regional medical planning strategy and execution of all field medical training programs, and process documentation and improvement. She also created a digital platform individualized for the company to track/measure KOL interactions, mapping, and insights.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Palko served as the Medical Director, Medical Affairs for Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in Princeton, NJ, where she was responsible for the overall medical strategy of product and management of the medical affairs team.

Across all roles, Dr. Palko has remained committed to bridging the gap between mental health needs and accessible, effective solutions. Her experience has resulted in the cultivation of a unique skill set essential for navigating the intersection of mental health and technology. She has served on her local county medical emergency task force since 2015. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a fellowship in psychiatric and neurological pharmacy at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.