Kansas City University welcomes new director for the Center for Population Health and Equity

Kansas City University is pleased to announce the addition of Catherine Lindsey Satterwhite, PhD, MSPH, MPH, who will serve as the executive director of the new Center for Population Health and Equity (CPHE).

Satterwhite most recently worked as the regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, where she was the senior federal public health official in the region, serving Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. She led diverse public health-related efforts, informing HHS policy and programming to best address the needs of the population.

In addition, Satterwhite worked for over a decade at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While at the CDC, she earned multiple awards for excellence in the practice of epidemiology.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Satterwhite to KCU and the helm of our Center for Population Health and Equity. She brings a wealth of experience in the field of epidemiology and an impressive background having served with two of the nation’s leading authorities on population health,” said Edward O’Connor, KCU provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and research. “We are fortunate to have someone of her caliber leading our efforts to improve health outcomes in our communities.”

Satterwhite is a strategic communicator with extensive experience facilitating collaboration between government agencies, health systems, academic institutions and stakeholders across the public health and health care spectrum. A demonstrated leader, she unites non-traditional partners and creatively solves problems. A Kansas native, she is an epidemiologist with both publication and media experience.

“We can make real change that will last a long time,” Dr. Satterwhite said. “We can keep people healthier, which not only helps them, but their families and the communities that they’re a part of.”

Prior to HHS, Satterwhite was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Population Health and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). Her research at KUMC focused on reproductive health, with additional projects related to infectious disease and quality improvement in the clinical sector. Satterwhite also worked with the Kansas City, Mo., Health Department as the senior epidemiologist during their successful accreditation process.

Satterwhite earned three graduate degrees from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Ga.: a PhD in epidemiology, a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in informatics, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) in epidemiology. She received her Bachelor of Arts from New York University (politics and French).

About Kansas City University

Kansas City University, founded in 1916, is a fully accredited, private not-for-profit health sciences university with Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, Biosciences and a College of Dental Medicine. The College of Osteopathic Medicine is the fifth largest medical school in the U.S., the ninth most impactful medical school for primary care for the nation, the tenth most affordable of private medical colleges, and the leading producer of physicians for the State of Missouri.

The College of Osteopathic Medicine has two sites strategically located on the University's campuses in Kansas City and Joplin, Missouri, to address the growing needs of both urban and rural populations. The University offers multiple graduate degrees; a doctor of osteopathic medicine; a doctor of psychology in clinical psychology; a master of arts in bioethics; a master of science in the biomedical sciences; a master of business administration in partnership with Rockhurst University; a new master of public health in partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and seated the first doctor of dental medicine students in 2023.