Executive Leadership and Expert Bios

Kelly Sarmiento, MPH

Health Communications Specialist

Areas of Expertise

• HEADS UP
• Concussion

Kelly Sarmiento, MPH, serves as a health communications specialist in the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention’s Home and Recreation Team. She is responsible for leading the HEADS UP campaign, which is a series of educational initiatives that all have a common goal: Protect kids and teens by raising awareness and informing action to improve prevention, recognition, and response to concussion and other serious brain injuries.

She began her career at CDC in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control’s Division of Injury Response. In this role, she served as the health communications team lead where she directed educational campaigns on traumatic brain injury and emergency response and provided strategic direction regarding health communication for the division’s state injury programs.

Ms. Sarmiento received her bachelor of arts degree in Anthropology and Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her masters of public health degree from Yale University School of Epidemiology and Public Health. She has developed more than 60 educational products and tools, as well as authored over 20 presentations, abstracts, and chapters. She has received many awards for her work in public health and innovation in health communication.