Karam Ahmad

Director

I Do This Work Because

I care deeply about my community’s well-being. At the end of the day, our common denominator is our health. I am passionate about advancing the health and well-being of my community through sound evidence-based research, evaluation, and analyses. This cannot happen without listening to the voices of all Coloradans, and I believe CHI’s position as a nonpartisan research institute is more important now than ever before.


Favorite Place in Colorado

Great Sand Dunes National Park


Favorite Quote

"Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' " — Kahlil Gibran


Favorite Activities

Watching and playing soccer, tennis, running, playing violin, live mixing music (DJing), hiking, reading, coffee coffee coffee.

Director Karam Ahmad is experienced in translating complicated data, policies, and analyses for a variety of audiences and stakeholders. A native Coloradan, he has a passion for connecting the dots locally, with data and community input and an upstream focus on social factors that influence our health.

Karam leads evaluation work for the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation and co-leads evaluation on the Denver Foundation’s Colorado Health Access Fund. Both efforts aim to understand the impact of philanthropy on oral health and behavioral health, respectively. Karam also leads CHI’s climate change and health work and is a subject matter expert in Social Health Information Exchange, contributing statewide guidance to the Office of eHealth Innovation. As a member and evaluator of CHI’s Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Alliance, he has been working on building monitoring and feedback mechanisms into the organization's first strategic plan for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Before joining CHI, he worked as a technical writer for Otter Products, LLC (more commonly known as OtterBox). He also was an analyst for the National Park Service and USDA Center for Epidemiological Animal Health. Karam also worked at RESOLVE, an environmental, public policy nonprofit in Washington, D.C., developing oil and gas and community health tutorials for public health professionals.

Karam received a bachelor’s degree in evolutionary biology & psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He earned his master’s degree in public health from the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University and a certificate in Climate Change and Health from Yale University.

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Karam Ahmad being filmed by a KUSA reporter with a homeless encampment in the background
Karam talks to a KUSA reporter about the health impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations.

Sample Projects:

Skills:

Evaluation, facilitation and convening, technical guidance, needs assessment, policy analysis, data translation, visual conceptualization

Focus Areas:

  • Evaluation
  • Climate change and environmental health
  • Health information technology
  • Oral health
  • Behavioral health

Contact Karam