Heather Kennedy is the Youth Movement Project Manager in the Center for Public Health Practice. An MPH alum (Community and Behavioral Health, ‘10) and recent PhD in Social Work, she oversees two grants that engage young people in social action programs. The first, UpRISE, focuses on tobacco control. The other involves adolescents in rural areas of Colorado in an arts-based conversation about mental health. From the time she applied for her first public health grant at the age of 17, Heather has been passionate about developing platforms where young people feel empowered to speak up and change their worlds.