Kathleen “Kathy” Edison, MPH, DrPH(c), is a public health practitioner-scholar focused on environmental health, climate resilience, emergency preparedness, and health equity. She serves as Section Councilor for the APHA Environment Section, Membership Co-Chair and Nominations Co-Chair for the Environment Section, and Co-Chair of the NACCHO Environmental Public Health Workgroup.
Her work centers on the intersection of environmental change, public health emergency preparedness, vulnerable populations, and One Health systems thinking. Kathy’s DrPH Applied Practice Experience focuses on developing the Canary in the Coal Mine Project, an AI-informed predictive preparedness framework designed to help agencies identify early warning indicators, anticipate compounding risks, and strengthen pre-disaster decision-making.
Kathy brings a cross-sector background in risk management, finance, and emergency preparedness, along with public health experience through the Medical Reserve Corps and community-centered preparedness work. Her long-term goal is to advance the Canary in the Coal Mine Project as a scalable, practice-ready preparedness product that integrates One Health systems thinking, predictive risk identification, and community-centered decision support. Her broader work also explores the development of AI and public health frameworks, including governance and regulatory approaches that ensure emerging technologies are designed, evaluated, and implemented with public health, equity, and community protection at the forefront.