Get to Know Kate Elkins

Bloomberg Fellow Kate Elkins began her journey in public health in high school where she served as a volunteer emergency medical technician in Kensington, MD. Since then, she has continued to serve in emergency service roles in every community she has lived in and is now committed to helping develop strong, data-driven policies to help Emergency Medical Services and 911 systems effectively serve their communities. 

After graduating with her Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2010, Elkins served in several injury prevention roles throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C. In 2018,  joined the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of EMS and National 911 program combining her expertise as a paramedic and her public health training. 

In March of 2020, right after Covid-19 was declared a world-wide pandemic, Elkins was deployed to the federal response team. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, changing the type of respirators required for treatment every week resulted in challenges for some small EMS agencies,” Elkins reflects about her response team supporting emergency medical systems struggling to protect their workforce and care for their communities in 2020. “Understanding how policy can be both beneficial and harmful to the work being done by critical safety net systems is an important part of creating actual change.”

With an enhanced understanding of the importance experience played in the development of effective policies, Elkins was determined to pursue her Doctorate of Public Health degree and applied to the Bloomberg Fellowship program at her alma mater. “Receiving the fellowship has been life-changing,” says Elkins.“The funding is amazing, but the networking and other opportunities offered during the program are even more valuable. I am so thankful for this opportunity to collaborate with incredible people in violence prevention as well as health policy.”