Kyla Bauer

Background

About Kyla Bauer

A special note during this time. I am non-binary and the reason why I share this publicly is because of continued efforts to erase trans individuals from public spaces. It is important to me that trans kids know a future also exists for them and to know there are adults who are like them. As someone who has worked hard to uphold the dignity of patients and community members, human dignity is something I value and have been committed to in all of my career.* I have worked directly with community members and stakeholders in efforts to address climate change, the obesity epidemic, and the high cost of healthcare. These are population health issues that we can struggle to make a dent in since they were first recognized as issues for many, many decades. While there has been criticism over how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, in my professional career, it was the first time I felt hope, as it was the fastest, largest, and most effective public health response I have witnessed. My career has been spent thinking about improvements to how we approach population health as a society. I have worked in both research and in startups, as avenues for beneficial and practical change. There is already a large amount of scientific knowledge, but it can be hard to translate into practice. I am able to innovate by better integrating what we already have, to improve upon solutions we already have. When the loneliness epidemic was declared by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2023, I was worried that it was doomed to fail because of how much it has in common with other stubborn issues. I used my time in a PhD, to piece together knowledge from all the folks I've worked with in my career, to try a different way of approaching the loneliness epidemic. I have two main goals. One goal is to help the public at large truly understand the root causes of social disconnection in our communities. The second goal is to highlight the solutions that already exist. There are tools and resources I am working with others to develop. The hope is to make it easier to contribute and be successful in addressing the loneliness epidemic.