NICHQ Employee Spotlight: Kirsten Klatka

Full name and title: Kirsten Klatka, MSW

Job Title: Associate Project Director

Key Projects: Family Engagement and Leadership in Systems of Care (FELSC) and Hemoglobinopathies National Coordinating Center (HNCC) 

Time with NICHQ: 8 years and 6 months (Joined NICHQ January 2017) 

How has your background led you to join a national children’s health organization?

In college, I was interested in social work and psychology and then during college, after my sophomore year, I did an internship in radiotherapy at MD Anderson in Houston. That really got me interested in the social work in the healthcare setting, so I ended up getting my master’s in social work and focused on health. I thought about doing a public health degree but decided to go in the social work direction with a macro (not clinical) concentration. Coming out of getting my MSW, I did public health research and through my social work internship that I did during my master’s, I actually connected with someone who connected me with NICHQ. That’s how I landed in children’s health in particular and also in quality improvement.

How do you plan to incorporate your past experiences in your current role as NICHQ’s Associate Project Director for the Family Engagement and Leadership in Systems of Care (FELSC)?

I have leveraged my background in quality improvement and in building relationships with partnering organizations for this work, as well as my experience working as a subcontractor, on the FELSC project. NICHQ is a subcontractor on this project, as well as on other projects, which has its challenges. The main challenge I would say is that, as subcontractors, we don’t have much direct contact with the federal funder, so we’re not always aware of what’s going on in the bigger picture of the project, and sometimes what the bigger vision of the project is. I have learned through these experiences to have regular communication with whomever the point person is at the prime contractor to understand to the best of my ability the overall vision of the project and how our work at NICHQ fits in. 

Along those lines, I work to build a strong relationship with the prime organization to enable honest conversations when challenges arise so we can be in a space where we can provide constructive feedback and then, hopefully, make improvements to our work.

You are also a part of the Hemoglobinopathies National Coordinating Center (HNCC) team. What is your role on the project, and what are some short- and long-term goals for the initiative?

For context, the federal funder is HRSA, the prime contractor is Abt Global, and NICHQ is a subcontractor to Abt. I am the NICHQ lead for that work. I work closely with the main director at Abt Global in my role. I also oversee NICHQ’s work on the quality improvement initiative as part of the HNCC. 

The overall goals of the HNCC are to improve systems of care for people living with sickle cell by supporting better connections across community organizations and clinical sites while bringing sickle cell warriors to the forefront in the planning; educating families and providers about sickle cell and linking patients and families to evidence-based care. Specific activities that we’re involved in include a quality improvement initiative that I mentioned to improve the transition to adult care, which is a really important stage for everyone, but specifically sickle cell warriors. If people are lost to follow-up, sometimes they have a deteriorating quality of life, and sometimes, unfortunately, die because they aren’t getting the care that they need, so it’s really important that all sickle cell patients have smooth transitions to high-quality adult care providers. The other NICHQ-led activities include the development of educational resources for providers, families, and warriors and convening task groups on different topics of interest. The task groups are an opportunity for awardees to talk about challenges and how they have figured out solutions to their challenges.

You have experience working on multiple projects during your time with NICHQ. What does NICHQ’s mission mean to you?

As I’ve matured in my career, I’ve realized how important it is for me to work in an organization whose mission has a direct impact on making people’s lives better, specifically people who may be underserved. I love that all of NICHQ’s work has this focus and that everyone who works here is dedicated to and passionate about making people’s lives better, particularly those who are not always receiving the services and resources that they need and should have. 

I’ve worked at NICHQ twice. I started for the first time back in 2004 to 2006, and then I left for 10 years. I came back, and I’ve been back for eight years. In my career, it’s definitely been the best place to work with the most passionate people. Everyone is so hardworking, and it just feels good to be all working towards this mission, even though sometimes it can be tough. 

Looking back at your time with NICHQ so far, what accomplishment are you most proud of?

I would say this isn’t necessarily a single accomplishment, but over my time at NICHQ in the past eight years, my projects have been particularly complicated and complex for different reasons. I am proud of being able to navigate those complexities and to build relationships with funders, prime contractors, consultants and most importantly, patients and families to achieve project goals, improve the healthcare system, and ultimately, people’s lives.

What is one valuable lesson learned during your career that you’d share with an early public health professional? 

I think an ongoing theme that you’ll see in this conversation is connections and relationships. I would say it’s all about connections and relationships. If I had to do it again, I would focus more of my time in school and just coming out of school on connecting with people in the field and getting real-life experience and learning about real-life experience rather than prioritizing getting good grades and excelling in classes. Relationships and connections can help you find new jobs but also can support you in taking on challenges and improving and advancing in your current role. We are finding now in this challenging time how important it is to have partnerships across organizations so we can all work together toward a common mission.