Associate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel
Email: kmorgens@med.umich.edu
Telephone: (734) 764-2178
Fax: (734) 647-2781
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Executive Assistant: Ashley Webster
Telephone: (734) 754-4555
Email: ashweb@med.umich.edu
Address:
300 North Ingalls Building, Room 3B04
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-5476
Kara began her practice as a healthcare attorney in 1995 and has experience in a broad range of areas, including research, transactions, fraud and abuse, patient rights, medical staff credentialing and peer review, billing/reimbursement, and graduate medical education. Kara joined the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President and General Counsel in 2002 after private practice with a national health law firm in Houston, Texas, and later in-house with a multi-state, non-profit health system. Prior to law school, Kara’s work experience included basic science research at the National Institutes of Health (where she became a co-inventor on a biosciences patent) and public health epidemiology with the San Diego County Health Department.
As an Associate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, much of Kara’s current practice is dedicated to supporting Michigan Medicine’s leadership team in areas such as strategic initiatives and compliance efforts. Kara collaborates closely with many units, including the University of Michigan Office of Research, UMMS Regulatory Affairs, Michigan Medicine’s Departments of Strategy, Communications, Compliance, Finance-Reimbursement, Patient Relations and Clinical Risk. Kara is an active member of the American Health Law Association (AHLA) and the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) and has been an invited speaker at national health law meetings on topics such as internal investigations, preparing for FDA inspections, and conflicts of interest. She has a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan and a juris doctorate, with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law, where she was an Assistant Editor of the Maryland Law Review and Vice President of the Student Health Law Association. Kara is licensed to practice in Michigan and the District of Columbia (also inactive in Texas).
When work allows, Kara likes to travel and hike with her husband, Lewis (a Michigan Medicine physician and clinical researcher), and her two adult daughters.
Education
- J.D, with honors, University of Maryland (1994), Assistant Editor, Maryland Law Review
- M.P.H., Epidemiology, University of Michigan (1990)
- B.S., Medical Technology, Catholic University of America (1986)
Professional Memberships and Outside Activities
- Member and Past Chair, Steering Committee of the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Legal and Compliance Council
- Member, American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA)
- Member, National Association of College and University Attorneys
