Episode #451 Simplifying AI for Public Health, With Kumba Sennaar, PhD
- 17 minutes ago
- 5 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
What Happens When a Storyteller Turns Her Focus to AI?
What happens when a lifelong storyteller turns her lens toward artificial intelligence and health communication? You get one of the clearest, most grounded voices in a field that desperately needs both. In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Kumba Sennaar, a health researcher, AI ethicist, and communication strategist whose work has been cited by institutions ranging from the National Academy of Medicine to the World Economic Forum.
From HIV Advocacy to AI Evaluation
Kumba's public health journey started with a spark in childhood and grew through scientific training, social science, and a pivotal role leading HIV/AIDS policy work for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. There, she trained clinicians to advocate directly to members of Congress and the Senate on behalf of programs like the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and PEPFAR. That experience navigating complex science, policy, and people became the foundation for everything she does today.
The Communication Gap That's Costing Public Health
One of the most candid moments in this conversation comes when Dr. Huntley and Kumba acknowledge that public health, as a field, is not particularly good at telling its own story. Kumba makes the case that the solution is not just clearer messaging. It is a fundamentally different orientation: centering the audience, not the message. She challenges professionals to enter the world of the communities they serve before deciding what to say or how to say it.
Moving from AI Hesitancy to Thoughtful Exploration
Public health professionals are deeply divided on artificial intelligence, and Kumba addresses this directly. She acknowledges that hesitancy makes sense, but argues that it cannot be the final answer. The conversation that follows, covering privacy protections, institutional readiness, and the importance of transparent partnerships, offers one of the most practical and reassuring frameworks for public health organizations trying to figure out their next step with AI.
Building a HIPAA for AI
If you have ever worried about where community data goes once it enters an AI platform, this episode speaks directly to you. Kumba draws a thought-provoking parallel to a time before HIPAA existed and what it took to build privacy protections that are now standard in health care. That framing may be exactly the perspective public health needs to move forward with confidence rather than fear.
Advice for a Challenging Moment in Public Health
Kumba closes with a simple but powerful reminder for every public health professional feeling worn down right now: go back to your why. Her encouragement is grounded, practical, and delivered with the warmth of someone who has navigated her own difficult seasons in this work.
About Our Guest
Kumba Sennaar, PhD, MS, MA
Kumba Sennaar, PhD, MS, MA is a health researcher, AI ethicist, and communication strategist with deep roots in infectious disease policy and a decade of experience translating complex technology for broad audiences. She is the founder and CEO of William Kelly Consulting, LLC, where she leads health communication strategy, AI evaluation, and research services for mission-driven health organizations and technology companies.
Kumba served as the former director of the National Medical Association's HIV/AIDS prevention initiative, a multi-year collaborative partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that reached over one thousand physicians of color across the country. She also held a policy and program leadership role within the HIV Medicine Association at the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Her research and writing on AI for health and business audiences has been cited by the National Academy of Medicine, McKinsey Global Institute, Deloitte, and the World Economic Forum, as well as the Boston University Law Review, Fordham Urban Law Journal, and the Harvard Data Science Review. Kumba is a Subject Matter Expert member of the Brookings Institution Health Equity and AI Working Group, whose landmark report on responsible AI was released in March 2025. Her TEDx talk, Reducing Algorithmic Bias in AI, was released in 2024, and she has been an invited speaker at institutions including UMass Chan Medical School, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the United Nations Population Fund, and the American Public Health Association.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Follow your curiosity, even when the path is unclear.
Kumba's career evolved across infectious disease policy, health communication, and AI evaluation because she stayed open to opportunities that genuinely excited her. Her advice to emerging professionals is to hold goals loosely and trust where interest leads.
Effective health communication starts with the audience, not the message.Â
Rather than leading with information to deliver, Kumba enters the audience's world first, learning what matters to them before deciding how to communicate. It is a reorientation that changes everything.
Community members are experts and should be treated as such.Â
People living through the conditions public health aims to improve are experts in their own experience. Treating them as peers rather than research subjects changes the quality of both the work and the relationship.
AI hesitancy in public health is understandable, but it cannot become the default position.Â
Kumba encourages organizations to move from hesitancy to evaluation. A thorough assessment of barriers, infrastructure, and readiness is far more productive than avoidance and may reveal a clear path forward.
Privacy protections for AI are developing, and public health can help shape them.Â
Much like HIPAA emerged to standardize privacy in health care, similar frameworks for AI data governance are actively being built. Kumba encourages professionals to ask hard questions, demand transparency from vendors, and draw on existing privacy structures for guidance.
Storytelling is not optional in public health right now.Â
The field's ability to communicate its value to everyday people directly affects the sustainability of programs and funding. If communities do not understand what public health does, protecting it becomes much harder.
Going back to your why is a professional survival strategy.Â
In a difficult moment for the field, Kumba's advice is clear: reconnect with the reason you entered this work. That original spark sustains long-term commitment and helps professionals navigate uncertainty without losing purpose.
"People with lived experience are the experts of their experience. So if you approach communicating whatever you're bringing forward in a way where I'm respecting you as a colleague, as a peer... that's how I try to approach explaining my work." — Kumba Sennaar, PhD
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DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.