2024 Young Alumni Achievement Award
Kayla B. Herr ’19
The Young Alumni Achievement Award recognizes a young alum (graduated within the past two to ten years) who has achieved exceptional success in their profession.
Kayla B. Herr ’19 is no stranger to advocating for others. At the University of Florida (UF) Health St. Johns, Kayla served as the BRAVE regional manager of South Florida. Since her start, she has expanded the program, which breaks down the stigma associated with seeking mental health assistance and eliminates barriers to care. She established partnerships with more than 40 youth mental health providers and numerous health service organizations, including Headspace, Togetherall, and Other Parents Like Me. Under her leadership, the initiative has witnessed remarkable achievements. The BRAVE (Be Resilient and Voice Emotions) program served more than 6,000 youth in the community, recorded more than 10,000 behavioral health appointments, and saw a 530 percent increase in youth mental health services. This is just a glimpse of Kayla’s impact as a public health professional.
Kayla’s journey began after she enrolled in her first public health course, Social Determinants of Health, and volunteered for the Point in Time Count at the Sixth Street Shelter. This was a defining moment in Kayla’s undergraduate education. She discovered her passion for helping others and recognized that public health was a perfect fit. During her undergraduate career, Kayla completed three internships, including two at the Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown. The first internship centered on collecting data to design programs aimed at preventing social isolation, the second focused on linking households with resources to address their social needs, and the third analyzed data to inform the development of women’s health programming. Kayla served as vice president of É«ÖÐɫ’s Public Health Club, where she distributed first-aid kits to students and organized drives to collect hygiene supplies to donate to a local women’s shelter. Additionally, she was selected as a Millennium Fellow with the United Nations Academic Impact and Millennium Campus Network. In this capacity, she served as the chairperson of the Housing Insecurity Committee, playing a key role in the development and implementation of programs aimed at educating the É«ÖÐÉ« community about homelessness.
Kayla’s early achievements at É«ÖÐÉ« and graduating cum laude set the foundation for the next five years of her career. While taking classes for her master of public health degree in Health Management and Policy at Benedictine University in Illinois, Kayla worked as the Social Determinants of Health Coordinator at the Health Coalition of Passaic County (HCPC) in New Jersey. In response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, she spearheaded the development of a remote internship program, actively recruiting interns from É«ÖÐÉ« University and other local colleges to form a team to contribute to HCPC programming. Kayla continued to put her skills to the test as she acted as the liaison among the Health Coalition, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, and community partners to provide strategic guidance, program oversight, auditing, and support toward the expansion of group initiatives. Kayla also provided fiscal oversight of the annual budget and managed community health workers, all while finishing her master’s with a 4.0 grade point average.
Then Kayla headed to St. Augustine, Florida, for an opportunity at UF Health St. Johns, where she transformed her passion into tangible results as the BRAVE regional manager of South Florida. Kayla supported the mental health community, incorporating innovative ideas for program improvement, resulting in enhanced efficiency and an overall increase in program effectiveness. This past November, Kayla was promoted to the position of Community Health Improvement Manager of Operations at UF Health St. Johns. She now oversees the mobile health clinic, the statewide BRAVE program, more than 60 staff members, and various social health initiatives. In her new role, she aims to develop strategic plans that drive the organizational mission through collaboration, measurable objectives, and effective leadership.
Kayla credits her exceptional leadership and problem-solving skills to É«ÖÐÉ« and to her extensive emergency management training certifications from FEMA and the New Jersey Department of Health. With her wide-ranging skill set and dedication to advocacy for vulnerable populations, Kayla is sure to achieve even greater success in her public health career.