Karma Edwards

Background

About Karma Edwards

I'm a National Public Health Consultant specializing in healthy community change, management, and leadership at each the local, regional, state, and national levels. I’ve managed millions of dollars in national award-winning initiatives, including having worked directly with 162 locations from nearly every U.S. state, including additional work in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. My public health expertise involves improving physical activity access and opportunity through the built environment, community, and transportation design as a key focus in preventing many chronic diseases and conditions. To do this work, I partner closely with many national experts in transportation, planning, and economic and real estate development, in addition to national public health leaders like the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and Healthy Places by Design. Under my direct leadership, project participants have achieved more than 4,300 outcomes in the form of new or enhanced policies, systems, and environments that enhance the health, livability, and economic vitality of all people. Additionally, these locations have leveraged more than $600 million in new dollars to improve their respective health and redesign efforts. My tenure in public health leadership is marked by more than a decade of administrative leadership positions to develop and maintain staffing of broad community health efforts. During this time, I acquired leadership and personnel development skills that served to not only recruit, hire, and manage more than 60 professionals throughout my career, but also to improve the operations, staffing, and fiscal processes and procedures that compliment many cross-cutting organizational and project management roles. These skillsets are transferrable to many professional fields and entrepreneurial endeavors. One example of this includes past educator positions, where I’ve taught across all levels of the lifespan. This experience requires an understanding of youth and adult learning theory and includes serving as a health educator for elementary, middle, and high school education; a professional trainer, presenter, and public speaker to a variety of audiences; and part-time adjunct faculty instructor at multiple colleges and universities. In another example as a current Real Estate Investor, I'm transferring my cross-disciplinary networking and project management skills with my passion of helping improve people and places to create partnerships, problem solve, and help people find their way home.