Karen Jemmott has made a career of disease prevention. For more than 20 years she has been a health and wellness advocate, researcher and editor, and community leader. At her core is community engagement, educating residents and bringing services to them.
Ms. Jemmott is currently the director of Community Affairs at The Brooklyn Hospital Center where she identifies, creates, and manages partnerships.
Drawing from her talents in outreach, she connects local partners and resources and forges affiliations with high schools and colleges, civic-groups, agencies, elected officials and the private sector. She is also very experienced in applying for grants.
She organized her most recent collaborative community event just a couple weeks ago, The Downtown Brooklyn Health Expo featuring 80 exhibitors and sponsored by The Brooklyn Hospital partnered with Long Island University.
While her parents emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in the 1960s and she was born in the U.S., Ms. Jemmott lived until the first grade in Trinidad and Tobago.
She says, “I became interested in healthcare because my mother was a nurse’s aide and from a young age I enjoyed helping people,” she says. “I also think I was influenced by my exposure to healthcare during my high school years at Clara Barton High School for Health Professions.”
She holds a BA in Psychology from Pace University and an MPA with a concentration in health management from New York University.
“I can confidently say that I have my pulse on the health issues facing Brooklyn residents,” she says.
“I believe that everyone deserves to have access to quality healthcare and I am committed to educating and connecting young people and adults to services in the community.”