Kathryn Yount

Dr. Kathryn Yount is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Global Health and Professor of Global Health and Sociology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. Her work focuses on social determinants of women’s health, gender-based violence prevention, and global health equity. She holds dual affiliations in the Hubert Department of Global Health and the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences. Dr. Yount has authored over 300 publications and leads major initiatives like the Fogarty/NIH-funded CONVERGE training program and the SCALE national implementation trial in Vietnam.

Education:

• BA: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• MSH: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• PhD: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Research Interests: Her work spans women’s empowerment, violence prevention in underserved communities, and mixed-methods evaluations. She designs scalable interventions addressing gender norms, sexual violence, and adolescent health in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent projects include measuring rape empathy among university men in Vietnam and evaluating the CARE Tipping Point Initiative in Nepal.

Key Contributions:

• Developed the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)
• Authored seminal studies on economic coercion and LGBTQ+ health disparities
• Chaired Emory’s University Senate and Graduate School committees

Awards and Recognition:

• AAAS Fellow (2023)
• Albert E. Levy Senior Faculty Award (2024)
• Marian V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization (2021)

Grants and Partnerships: Continuously funded since 2002 by NIH, foundations, and international agencies. Leads CONVERGE (D43 NIH grant) training next-gen scientists in gender-based violence prevention in Vietnam.

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) consortium, WHO, and national governments to scale evidence-based interventions.