Emily Santich
Research and Programs Manager
Emily Santich works on CHI's Connected Communities of Care and Acclimate Colorado teams and is actively involved in our assessment work, incorporating qualitative and quantitative analysis, facilitation, and community and stakeholder engagement. She led the last two community health needs assessments for San Luis Valley Health, as well as assessments for Middle Park Health and Gunnison Valley Health. Emily also oversaw a multiyear, first-of-its-kind project that explored the relationship between wildfires, homeowners insurance, and health with support from the Colorado Division of Insurance. In 2023, she partnered with Kaiser Permanente Colorado to develop recommendations for health care systems and philanthropic organizations to advance climate resilience for community health. She serves as a member of the National Network of Public Health Institutes' Environmental Health and Climate Workgroup.
In partnership with the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials, Emily designed and delivered innovative, engaging workshops to local public health agencies to support local data modernization efforts and inform statewide strategy to advance data-driven decision-making. She coordinated efforts among Metro Denver Partnership for Health (MDPH) partners to update the Let’s Talk Colorado / Hablemos Colorado website, a campaign that aims to reduce mental health stigma among underserved populations. She also worked with the Colorado Department of Early Childhood on a grant that sought to address gaps in the early child care and education system for children ages birth through five.
Before coming to CHI, Emily joined Colorado’s statewide COVID-19 response effort as a Laboratory Testing Coordinator Team Lead at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to support testing and immunization events. Her early work at CHI involved facilitating the Metro Denver Partnership for Health's COVID-19 Schools Workgroup and providing program support for their Immunization Ambassador Program. Later she planned the program evaluation and provided technical assistance for the state’s COVID-19 Primary Care Vaccination Program.
Emily's early experience is in maternal child health and sexual and reproductive health. As a maternal child health fellow at Boston University School of Public Health, she researched whether consent-inclusive sex education prevents sexual assault among high school students and reviewed sex education policy and consent-inclusive curricula for each state. She worked as a prevention educator for the Boston University Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center, where she developed content for sexual violence prevention curricula, facilitated bystander intervention and sex positivity workshops for undergraduates, and planned events for Sexual Assault Awareness Week. As a health education intern with RISE in San Luis Obispo, Emily certified as a crisis counselor and led task force meetings to improve community response to sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
Emily earned a master’s degree in public health from the Boston University School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic State University. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, biking, and embracing her inner grandmother (petting her cat, drinking tea, and crocheting).
Skills: Needs assessment; stakeholder engagement; facilitation; program design, implementation, and evaluation
Sample Projects:
- Lead author: Advancing Climate Resilience for Community Health
- Assessing and Advancing Public Health Data Modernization in Colorado
- Insurance Availability and Affordability in Colorado
- Wildfire Risk, Our Homes, and Our Health
- Author of The Impact of Child Care Access on Health, Colorado Is Facing a Child Care Crisis, and Strengthening Relationships Between Health and Community Organizations to Support Health Equity
Focus Areas:
- Climate and health
- Public and community health
- Early childhood health
- Maternal mental health
- Sexual violence prevention