Interview with Dr. Laura Gerald, MD, MPH
Listen Here:
Highlights from this episode:
1. Working at the intersection of health philanthropy and public health
2. Transitioning from a Pediatrician to more public health and systems work
3. What it takes to lead a $570 million dollar statewide health foundation
Episode 25 of Public Health Careers
In this episode, I have a conversation with Dr. Laura Gerald, the President and CEO of Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust is a $570 Million Dollar Statewide Foundation that focuses on improving the health and quality of people with low incomes across North Carolina.
Dr. Gerald completed her bachelors in biology at Harvard and Radcliffe College before attending Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and continuing onto do a Pediatrics Internship and Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She practiced Pediatrics for a few years before getting her Master of Public Health from Harvard University School of Public Health where she was also a fellow for the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.
After completing her MPH, she then went to work as the Executive Director for the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission for one year. She then went on to become the State Health Director for the Division of Public Health for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. After dissatisfaction with the shifting political climate and how it uprooted the work she had done, she resigned and then went to work for Evolent Health.
Dr. Gerald is currently the President of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has found her place where she can work to shift longstanding inequities through a broad based systems level approach to health improvement.
Links from show
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
Connect with Guest
Dr. Laura Gerald on KBR website
