Email: Kalia_at_preventioninstitute_dot_org

Kalia Pannell (she/her) is a Community Impact & Engagement Specialist based in Prevention Institute's Houston office. She currently leads AESOP's Leadership Network, a space for advocates and leaders to engage in peer connection and facilitated activities designed to prevent burnout and sustain movements with a focus on collective healing and storytelling. 

Kalia also studies and utilizes community assessment methods that incorporate lived experience as data to better meet the needs of Texas residents through landscape scans in South Texas and the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area. In addition to supporting Texas-based projects, Kalia engages in efforts to assess and amplify Prevention Institute's overall impact in communities across the country. This includes advancing the way the field talks about and uses multiple forms of evidence for decision-making and narrative strategy through the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence framework. 

In 2021, Kalia joined Prevention Institute as a Senior Research Associate, leading evaluation design and analysis for the Young Minds Matter conference before advancing to the Program Coordinator position. In this role, her responsibilities included co-managing the Communities of Care initiative as well as engaging the Houston Health Department in staff-wide trainings to continuously embed and sustain equity in their programming and operations. She continues to support implementation and youth engagement efforts for the biannual Young Minds Matter conference, providing opportunities for the voices of young leaders to be centered in the conversation around youth mental health and long-term systems change.

She began her public health career with a focus on engagement and advocacy through the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, providing resources and facilitating arts-based workshops to understand the needs of vulnerable communities. Her interests bridge across the spectrum of public health with disciplinary training in formal academic research, experience in program evaluation, and leadership in engaging youth and community members. 

Kalia received her Master's degree in Public Health from the UT Health School of Public Health with a concentration in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and a certificate in Health Disparities. She enjoys baking, tending to her houseplants, and exploring the Houston food scene.