Disclaimer: Kathleen's activities with APHA are in her personal capacity only, and her views do not officially represent those of HHS, CDC, or NCHS. She does not officially speak on behalf of HHS, CDC, or NCHS.
Kathleen S. O’Connor has over 30 years of work experience in various research, clinical, and community settings in public health. She has extensive expertise in survey methodology, quantitative and qualitative research, surveillance, data analysis of various data types from large nationally representative surveys that use complex sample designs, program and contract management, and scientific oversight. She has worked in numerous positions in the federal and state government space, universities, a hospital, clinical laboratories, and the non-profit sector.
Kathleen is currently a health scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she has worked for over 24 years. In her current role in the NCHS Office of Science, she coordinates and leads the NCHS Human Research Protection Program; serves as the senior principal expert and technical advisor to the NCHS Associate Director for Science on human subjects research and surveillance activities; oversees research and surveillance-related programmatic, technical, scientific, and administrative efforts; and assists the NCHS Confidentiality Officer with Disclosure Review Board activities. She also serves on the CDC Gift Review Panel. In a prior position as a public health analyst in the CDC’s Division of Health Care Statistics, she conducted research with administrative claims data, provided scientific and technical guidance and support for survey methods and program management, conducted outreach, and managed projects for several national surveys of health care establishments and health care providers across sectors that collected administrative claims and electronic health records data. Prior to this, she was a survey statistician for over a decade in the CDC's Division of Health Interview Statistics, where she played an integral role to develop, design, implement, and monitor large national surveys, survey questions, and follow-back surveys conducted by the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey mechanism and the National Health Interview Survey. She led several of those large national surveys, in addition to follow-back surveys. She also served as chair, vice chair, and member on the NCHS Ethics Review Board, formerly the Institutional Review Board. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed professional journals and other outlets (including NCHS publications), and coauthored a book chapter. She has presented on a wide variety of topics (including invited talks) within CDC, NCHS, and at various professional meetings. She won numerous awards from CDC and NCHS for her service, and the inaugural APHA VCS Dr. Melvin D. Shipp Best Abstract Award.
Prior to working at NCHS, she discovered her love of survey methodology by working on numerous adolescent health research projects at multiple universities on NIH-funded R01 grants. She also worked at an occupational health center, providing health and safety training (both didactic and hands-on) for numerous topics to members of local labor unions across the US, while also helping to coordinate and manage logistics and certifications for their very busy training schedule. She started her professional career at a hospital in Washington, D.C. as a clinical microbiologist. Early in her career, after a very competitive vetting process, she was selected to participate in the Rotary Foundation International Group Study Exchange to represent the Washington, D.C. Rotary district in Switzerland. She learned about the Swiss health care and public health systems, and visited various universities, specialty hospitals, academic medical centers, and pharmaceutical companies to gain first-hand knowledge and international exposure to microbiology, medicine, and public health topics.
Kathy is a proud first-generation college student who worked her way through school. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a BS in Microbiology, and holds a Master of Public Health degree from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also completed additional graduate coursework in statistics, data analysis, survey methodology, and public health at UMCP and GWU. She is currently a doctoral candidate writing a dissertation at Morgan State University, School of Community Health and Policy (DrPH degree) in Baltimore, MD.
She is passionate about the intersection of public health and vision and eye health, among children and adults generally but especially among children with special health care needs; preventing eye problems; exploring vision care disparities; and increasing awareness of the importance of vision and eye health. She is on the Advisory Committee of the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health of Prevent Blindness America. She has conducted research and presented on children’s vision and eye health using several large nationally representative datasets.
Even as a young child she was interested in all things vision. Vision and eye care are not just research or passing interests; it's personal - she visits her eye doctors quarterly to monitor numerous eye conditions. She volunteered at a clinic in Appalachia, which (in part) included supporting the work of opticians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists.
Vision and eye health are not her only passions because she is insatiably curious. As an empowered widow, she is also interested in exploring grief as a public health issue, and facilitates two spouse/partner loss support groups for two national non-profits. Kathy is also active in the Federal Center Toastmasters Club at NCHS, where she hones skills such as prepared and extemporaneous speaking and leadership. She enjoys traveling; attending plays, lectures, and concerts; reading; watching documentaries and movies; gardening; hiking; tennis and pickleball; going to the gym; and lurking on animal rescue websites. She is a proud mom to her daughter Brigid and one cat. She is a lifelong resident of the Washington DC area.