Alumni Spotlight: Kate Perry, DrPH ’19

Kate Perry
Kate Perry, DrPH ’19

With 83 graduates since its inception in 2014, the DrPH Program has developed an illustrious, talented group of public health professionals who have taken their DrPH degree and have become public health leaders.

We recently reached out to Kate Perry, DrPH ’19, to find out where her public health career has taken her and the current work she is doing.

 


  • Where are you currently located?

Kate: Dallas, Texas.

  • Where are you currently working and a brief description of your job?

Kate: Senior Vice President/Senior Director for Healthy Communities at Independent Financial.

  • The 4 pillars of the DrPH Program are leadership, management, communication, and innovative thinking. Which of the pillars (if any) do you use most in your new position and how did the program prepare you for it?

Kate: The DrPH Program provided me with a rich tool-set to draw from in developing and leading projects and programs.  I draw from all four pillars regularly and especially when faced with difficult or unfamiliar challenges.

  • If you are in a management position, what would you look for if you were hiring new graduates from the DrPH Program?

Kate: I look for skills in cross-sector collaboration, the ability to translate research to real-world applications,  and the ability to effectively communicate with business leaders and others without public health training.

  • If you could do things all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? Why? What would you change?

Kate: I would choose the same path. It’s been a great adventure so far and I love the caring and committed people I have met along the way.

  • Is there any work/document/article that you are currently working on that you’d like to promote? Our current students would love to find out what our alumni are currently working on. 

Kate: I recently completed work leading the design/build for a Federally Qualified Health Center, Family Health Center on Virginia. The project provides primary care and wrap-around services in a medically underserved area of Collin County (North Texas). Videos and news stories about the project can be found on the North Texas Family Health Foundation website.

I am currently working on several initiatives focused on SDOH in our employee community at the Bank.  This includes Mission: Thrive — a program focused on socio-emotional health and wellbeing for employees, which is in its second year. It also includes a partnership with View Inc. (and two fellow HSPH alumni) to complete an employee survey that looks at health and well-being, measures of flourishing, employee engagement, and work environment.  A piece of this work will be featured next month at The Economist’s Innovation@Work event.  Our fireside chat is titled “Investing in human capital: building a healthy workplace in a post-pandemic world”.

If you would like to connect with Kate Perry, please visit her LinkedIn profile here.