Kenn Harris

Kenn Harris currently is Execcutive Project Director and Engagement Lead at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) in Boston, MA and his immediate past job was as Vice President for Community Engagement and Director and Principal Investigator of the New Haven Healthy Start program at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in New Haven, CT. His professional career in MCH and public health spans over 30 years.

Before starting his job in CT, Kenn worked with the Boston Healthy Start Initiative in Boston, MA, one of the original Healthy Start project. There he established and maintained the Community Consortium and helped create the Father-Friendly Initiative. During his time in Boston, he also served on the “For Fathering Advisory Council” of the Medical Foundation, working with fragile families supporting responsible fathers.

Kenn is a past president of the National Healthy Start Association and helped establish the Association’s Dads Matter Initiative: Where Dads Matter, Washington, DC.  He is co-creator of the Core Adaptive Model for Fatherhood (CAM©), an evidenced-informed model for fatherhood/male involvement programs.  He is currently working creating an evidenced-based home-visiting program for men and fathers that builds on the lessons-learned from the CAM model for Fatherhood.

Kenn is a national expert in the field of maternal and child health, public health, fatherhood/ male involvement and community engagement. He worked on “My Brother’s Keeper”, President Obama’s initiative to address the health of boys and men of color. He also has expertise and interest in topics of the impact of racism on health outcomes, equity and  addressing men’s health in the age of mass incarceration.

Kenn co-authored and published an article “The Health of Young African American Men” in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, 2015). He continues researching Black men’s health and focuses on the integration of health services into programs for men and fathers.

Kenn remains passionate about women’s health, children, fathers and families as well as the health and well-being of the communities in which they live, learn, play and pray.