Leslie Rodriguez, PhD
Senior Director, Public Health Programs

Quick Facts

  • 20+ years of experience in Public Health Communications with expertise in Emergency Management and Evaluation and Assessment

  • Executive member of the Karna, LLC leadership team

  • 678-861-4134 | lrodriguez[at]karna[dot]com

DOWNLOAD
PDF | vCard

EMAIL
lrodriguez[at]karna[dot]com

CALL
(678) 861-4134

CONNECT ON
LinkedIn

EXPERTISE

  • Crisis and risk communication
  • Emergency Management
  • Evaluation & Assessment
  • Health Communications
  • Lay Health Educators/Promotoras
  • Marketing
  • Maternal and Child Health
  • Measles
  • Mixed methods research
  • New and emerging diseases
  • Nutrition
  • Outbreaks and responses
  • Program Evaluation
  • Public Speaking
  • Research Support
  • Research to practice
  • Teen pregnancy prevention
  • Vaccine hesitancy
  • Vaccine preventable diseases

“If you start to feel too comfortable, it’s time to push harder”

Dr. Leslie Rodriguez is the Senior Director of Public Health Programs at Karna, LLC, and oversees the acquisition and management of all federal contracts. She has more than 20 years of experience working across the Public Health sector. Before her tenure at Karna, for nearly a decade, she led health communications for outbreaks and emergency responses, including measles and Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) as the Lead Health Communication Specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Leslie began her career working on community-based nutrition projects for low-income communities and serving as a Project Director for a wellness project in inner-city schools. Her work included designing, implementing, and evaluating lay health educator programs in Spanish and English about healthy eating, feeding practices for young babies, physical activity, and teen pregnancy prevention. As an established expert in emergency management, evaluation and health communication, disparities, maternal and child health, and nutrition, Leslie has authored several manuscripts on these subject matters.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Dietetics and a Masters of Health Promotion and Behavior from the University of Georgia. She later received her Doctorate in Health Communications from her alma mater.

Publication Highlights

Provider insight on surmounting specialty practice challenges to improve Tdap immunization rates among pregnant women

Understanding barriers and predictors of maternal immunization: Identifying gaps through an exploratory literature review

Disparities in Tdap Vaccination and Vaccine Information Needs among Pregnant Women in the United States

FIND
YOUR EXPERT