Karma E. Harris, MSPH

Healthy Communities

Karma Harris is a Public Health Consultant with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD). With this role, she leads the Walkability Action Institute project and most recently led the Reaching People with Disabilities through Healthy Communities project for NACDD.

Over the last 10 years at NACDD, she’s worked with approximately 120 locations throughout the country in helping them make healthy community improvements. She has assisted them with capacity-building assistance, expertise and leadership in the establishment of new policy, system, and environmental (PSE) changes for inclusive physical activity, healthy eating, and tobacco strategic areas. Her tenure in chronic disease prevention and leadership is marked by 10 years of local and regional public health experience in the state of North Carolina, where she served in administrative leadership positions in two rural North Carolina counties to develop and manage community health educators, WIC nutritionists, and broad community health efforts.

Karma especially enjoys the overlap between physical activity, active transportation, built design, and disability inclusion and holds the general belief that when communities are built for everyone, no one gets left out.

When she is not working, one may often find her swimming, biking, running, and competing in the fun sport of triathlon. Much of her love for the built environment comes through seeing how a community is designed through the eyes of a biker, runner, or walker.