ASTHO Welcomes New Leadership to Executive Team

January 18, 2024

ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) announced that Khalilah LeGrand, EdD, and Tabatha Offutt-Powell, DrPH, have joined its executive leadership team.

“Combined, Kalilah and Tabatha bring decades of public health experience to ASTHO,” says Michael Fraser, PhD, ASTHO CEO. “The COVID pandemic underscored the need for strong public health communications and data modernization. I’m confident our new leaders will bring necessary growth and change to the public health ecosystem.”

Khalilah LeGrand, EdD, is vice president of communications and public relations and is responsible for overseeing the public relations and content development teams. LeGrand is a seasoned communicator and leader, boasting a diverse track record of success in both public and private settings. Previously, she served as director of communications at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. As a strategist and spokesperson, she supported the agency’s five divisions and was later promoted to chief of staff. In this role, she directed special projects for the CEO, oversaw both the office of communications and office of legislative services, while regularly liaising with the Governor’s administrative team and other key stakeholders. Before working with the state of Nebraska, LeGrand was the senior director of communications, media, and public relations for the Norfolk Public School system in Virginia. Between 2021 and 2022 she served as executive board vice president and executive board president of the National Public Health Information Coalition and currently serves on the board of Smart Gen Society and in an advisory capacity to Arclet—a startup health communications platform.

Tabatha Offutt-Powell, DrPH, is vice president of public health data modernization and informatics, overseeing ASTHO’s public health data modernization strategy and informatics portfolio, supporting state health officials and their public health agencies through technical assistance, capacity building, planning, and implementation activities. Offutt-Powell joins ASTHO after serving as the state epidemiologist and chief of the epidemiology, health data, and informatics section for Delaware’s Division of Public Health. With over 20 years of experience in public health, Offutt-Powell has led initiatives in informatics, epidemiology, health security response, and state health data interoperability. Recently, Offutt-Powell directed Delaware’s COVID-19 epidemiology team, health statistics center, office of vital statistics, bureau of public health informatics, and epidemiology research unit working to streamline public health data sharing for the public and state.

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.