Healthcare management executive, strategic planner, and project manager Malika Evans was born Malika Romona Barker in 1983 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She received the Thomas J. and Marie W. Burke Scholarship, an annual academic scholarship for African Americans or any student of promise to benefit from a Saint Michael’s College education. Evans graduated from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences degree in 2005.
From 2005 to 2007, Barker engaged in advanced studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Afterward, she began her professional career as Director of the Department of Family Medicine at Cooper University Hospital (CUH) in Camden, New Jersey. While there, she oversaw the business operations of 10 satellite primary care practices that engaged more than 100 staff. Barker also managed departmental operating and capital budgets for Cooper University Hospital until 2008.
On August 7, 2008, Malika and Jason Norman Evans were married in the Bronx, New York. Two years later, in 2010, she accepted the position of Facility Operations Manager and oversaw a multi-million-dollar non-payroll budget with Kaiser Permanente Hospitals and Health Care in Northern Virginia. She remained there until 2013 before moving on to MedStar in Washington, DC, where she was the Director of Acquisitions. There, she developed, implemented, evaluated, monitored, and coordinated the transition of physician practices into Cardiology Associates. In addition, she developed external marketing plans, evaluated facility referral patterns, and established and maintained relationships with new and existing referring physicians through 2014.
Beginning in 2016, Evans worked with Cardiology Associates in Springfield, Virginia, as the director of Consumer Experience and Health Plan Services until 2019. In that role, she served as the liaison and collaborated with physicians throughout Northern Virginia to identify strategic opportunities and implement service initiatives to improve member satisfaction with the service area.
From 2019 to 2024, Evans was Director of Member Services and Medical Records with Kaiser Permanente Hospitals and Health Care in Rockville, Maryland. In 2024, she began serving as Senior Director of Grievance Operations for Colorado, Georgia, Northwest, and Mid-Atlantic States with Kaiser Permanente Hospitals and Health Care in Oakland, California.