Episode #465 A Different Kind Of Advocate, With Kasie Whitener, PhD
- 14 minutes ago
- 4 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
What Happens When A Senate Candidate Walks Into A Public Health Conversation?
What does the national debt have to do with your health? More than most people think. In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Dr. Kasie Whitener, a radio host, business professor, entrepreneur, and the current Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. Senate in South Carolina. Dr. Whitener brings a perspective that is rarely heard in public health spaces, and this conversation is all the better for it.
Dr. Whitener is not a career politician. She is a researcher, an educator, and a community builder who sees public health as deeply connected to the fiscal decisions made at the federal level. Her motivation is straightforward: every policy issue, at its core, is a funding issue.
A Fresh Set Of Eyes On Public Health Funding
Dr. Whitener's take on how the federal government allocates public health dollars is both candid and thought-provoking. She raises important questions about program lifecycles, perverse incentives in government procurement, and what it actually means to declare a public health victory. Her entrepreneurial lens leads to some genuinely refreshing questions about where resources go, why they stay there, and what it would look like to redirect them with intention.
She and Dr. Huntley explore the tension between sustaining programs that work and recognizing when a program has run its course. They also discuss the challenge of measuring prevention, and why "it's hard to measure things that don't happen" has real consequences for how public health is funded and valued.
Veteran Mental Health, Chronic Disease, And Preventive Care
Dr. Whitener is clear about where her passion lies. She is particularly focused on mental health among veterans and first responders, as well as the broader challenge of chronic disease prevention in communities like South Carolina, where rates of chronic illness are among the highest in the country. She and Dr. Huntley find significant common ground here, including a conversation about what it would take to finally make prevention a true priority.
Advice For Public Health Professionals Feeling Stuck Right Now
Perhaps the most striking moment of this episode comes near the end, when Dr. Whitener offers advice to listeners navigating the uncertainty of the current public health landscape. Her perspective, rooted in entrepreneurship rather than traditional public health, is unexpectedly encouraging. She challenges listeners to think about value creation, diversifying funding sources, and even reconsidering the problems they are trying to solve.
This is the kind of conversation that reminds you why PHEC exists: to bring in voices that expand what public health can look like and who gets to shape it.
About Our Guest
Kasie Whitener, PhD
Dr. Kasie Whitener is a radio host, business owner, educator, and author based in Columbia, South Carolina. She co-hosts Mornings with Kasie and Kev on 100.7 The Point and is the founder of Clemson Road Creative, a boutique consultancy. She teaches entrepreneurship at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina through the Faber Entrepreneurship Center. Dr. Whitener has published two novels and has served her community through the South Carolina Writers Association and as a grant awards panelist for the South Carolina Arts Commission. She has held leadership roles within the South Carolina Libertarian Party and is the current Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Every policy issue is a funding issue.
From a congressional perspective, the primary lever available is resource allocation. Dr. Whitener argues that understanding how funding flows, and where it gets stuck, is essential for public health professionals who want to influence policy.
Government procurement creates real barriers for community organizations.
Smaller organizations that lack the infrastructure to navigate lengthy procurement processes are frequently passed over in favor of larger corporate interests. This dynamic shapes which solutions actually get funded.
Measuring prevention is genuinely hard, and that matters.
It is difficult to quantify outcomes that never happen. Dr. Whitener and Dr. Huntley discuss how this challenge affects political will for preventive care investment and what could be done about it.
Entrepreneurial thinking can strengthen public health advocacy.
Concepts like customer validation, stakeholder mapping, and value creation translate surprisingly well into public health contexts. Knowing who benefits from your work, and making sure they know it too, is a form of advocacy.
When public funding is uncertain, diversify.
Dr. Whitener encourages public health professionals to look beyond government grants toward private funding, corporate partnerships, and even crowdfunding as ways to demonstrate and sustain value.
Veteran mental health remains an urgent and underserved priority.
Dr. Whitener is particularly passionate about suicide prevention among veterans and first responders, a population that is disproportionately affected and deserving of sustained attention.
It is okay to let a program evolve or end.
One of the more challenging ideas in this conversation is the notion that programs should have lifecycles. Recognizing when a program has achieved its goals, and redirecting resources accordingly, is a form of responsible stewardship.
"Be interested, not interesting. Every space I go into, the first thing I want to do is ask questions: what's important to you, what matters to you, why does that matter to you, how can I help?" — Dr. Kasie Whitener
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Public Health Consulting To Support You
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.
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