Kay Carpender

Biography

Carpender is the Assistant Director of both the USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness and the Office of Special Programs & Global Health at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. With over 35 years of experience in the field of public health, she has managed a wide range of initiatives from retrospective and prospective epidemiologic studies to her current role leading a team of public health professionals to develop and implement activities related to public health preparedness. She uses a wide range of techniques, including rural preparedness roundtables, didactic learning (face-to-face and online), and public health emergency exercises to assist communities in building preparedness and response capacity. 

For the past 12 years, Carpender has served as a consultant with the South Dakota Department of Health to address public health preparedness challenges in tribal communities within the Sioux Nation in South Dakota. She has developed strong working relationships with partners at the South Dakota Department of Health and the leadership within several Sioux Tribes. Based on this work, Carpender was asked by the Texas Department of State Health Services to facilitate meetings with the three tribes in Texas to begin building a relationship between the state health department and each of the tribes.