Kat Kowalski, MPH (She/Her/Ella), is a Data Coordinator at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts (PHIWM), bringing experience advancing health equity through public health practice, research, evaluation, and community partnerships. She earned her Master of Public Health in Population and Global Health from the Colorado School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Geography and Sustainability from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass).

Before joining PHIWM, Kat worked across local and state public health systems in Colorado and Massachusetts. Her experience includes supporting people experiencing homelessness through the Health District of Northern Larimer County, coordinating community outreach and vaccine initiatives during Colorado’s COVID-19 response, and leading Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change work with the UMass Nutrition Education Program to improve food access and healthy living opportunities. She has also contributed to research on neighborhood environments, historical redlining, and childhood health outcomes, publishing in the Journal of Urban Health.

Kat is committed to community engagement and leadership. She served as co-lead of the Colorado Public Health Association’s Health Equity Coalition Professional Development Workgroup and volunteers with the Holyoke Food and Equity Collective. In her free time, Kat enjoys fantasy books, hiking with her partner and two dogs, and growing food and flowers in her garden, alongside a rotating collection of hobbies that she is always eager to learn but not always successful at mastering.

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