Alumni

Karen Daly worked briefly as a registered pharmacist in New York State, and then on weekends while attending UCLA Medical School on a Navy health professions scholarship. After earning her MD in 1984, she was commissioned an active-duty lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps.

Daly served as the first woman physician aboard the Navy ship USS Cape Cod from 1985 to 1986 prior to completing a family medicine residency at Naval Hospital Charleston, S.C. in 1988. She went on to work as a staff family medicine physician at a Naval Clinic in Patuxent River Md., and the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.

She completed a residency in psychiatry at Naval Medical Center San Diego, and was a psychiatrist at Naval Medical Clinic in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va.; Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Wash.; and the Naval Branch Health Clinic in Groton, Conn. After 9/11, Daly deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, Kuwait, Iraq and Central and South America aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort. After 30 years of active-duty service, Daly retired as a Navy captain in 2014.

After her retirement from the Navy, Daly worked as a psychiatrist at Natchaug Hospital in Conn., followed by a 10-year stint at the USCG Academy. She retired in May 2025, having cared for U.S. military populations for 40 years. Daly hopes to spend time with her son and two cats, enjoy her hobbies, travel and watch the Buffalo Bills win!