Dr. Palmer has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to improving the lives of others through a unique blend of scientific medicine, holistic healing, and social justice making.

Dr. Palmer is among the first women in her family to practice medicine. Her mother trained as an RN, at the DeGoesbriand Hospital, while two sisters, and one female cousin earned RN’s along with a cousin who earned an MD at Vermont’s College of Medicine. Pursuing a dream of becoming a doctor from an early age, Dr. Palmer earned an honors degree in Biochemistry from Vassar College, and a medical degree from the University of Vermont, before building a distinguished career in integrative medicine, teaching for more than 35 years as a volunteer at UCSF.

Dr. Palmer maintained a private practice with insured patients while also serving vulnerable populations in the St. Luke’s Neighborhood Clinic and teaching as an unpaid volunteer UCSF Associate Professor with the Parsonage, the first mainstream church's outreach which offered a several session group course called a "Challenge to Bed” designed for LGBT individuals who were exploring the challenges of “coming out.” Also offered, was a very popular “12 Step” recovering from substance abuse course group which met in a quiet and secluded basement private room.

Beyond Dr. Palmer’s most important accomplishments after becoming an MFT trained in reactive imagination, dream work, reiki touch therapy, was becoming a leader in dream psychotherapy, spiritual care, and advocacy by helping advance opportunities for women and LGBTQ+ individuals in both medicine and the Episcopal Church, contributing to important social and institutional changes over several decades behind 18th Street in the Castro Neighborhood, which is known worldwide as an LGBT center of political activism. At the time, the ancient ministry of anointing the sick with blessed oil, and offering blessed communion bread, with the laying on of hands while praying for healing had fallen away to largely a bedside ritual of the sick communicant and was rarely offered on a Sunday during communion. However, since the Aids Crisis that ancient rite has been much renewed in a number of churches. Dr. Palmer began a renewal at the peak of the crisis which has been enthusiastically embraced.

Among the most valuable achievements, Dr. Palmer considers her leadership role in successful efforts to save St. Luke’s, a charitable hospital founded in 1872. And when MediCal lowered its reimbursement Rev. Thomas Brotherton, applied “Robinhood medicine”… with the poor paying on a sliding scale, and the Episcopal Church paying more for its clergy. Through advocacy, public engagement, and coalition-building, Dr. Palmer helped mobilize physicians and community leaders to preserve a vital healthcare resource for underserved populations. Without St. Luke’s, the burden would fall again on San Francisco General hospital.

Dr. Palmer has previously been honored with the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.