Kaitlyn R. Jones is Education Program Specialist with the OPEEP Team. Originally from Connecticut, Kaitlyn is a three-time Buckeye, earning her Bachelor of Science in Public Health-Sociology with a minor in Dance, followed by dual master’s degrees in Public Health and Social Work, from The Ohio State University. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified Community Health Worker (C-CHW) through the Ohio Board of Nursing.

Throughout her career, Kaitlyn’s work is grounded in maternal, child, and infant health and housing policy advocacy across local, state and federal levels. She has led and supported initiatives focused on strengthening outcomes for families, advancing health equity, and translating research into actionable policy and practice. Her background spans program development, evaluation, and community-engaged research, with a consistent focus on centering lived experience and building solutions that are both data-informed and people-driven.

During her time at the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health, Kaitlyn served as a Evaluation Specialist with the Community Organizing for Prevention team at the Injury and Violence Prevention Center. Her work ensured youth voices and lived experience shaped research design, evaluation processes, and innovative community dissemination efforts. Kaitlyn also mentored emerging evaluators and helped deepen the team’s shared commitment to equitable evaluation practices, reinforcing her belief that meaningful prevention work must be community-driven, transparent, and rooted in justice. Most recently, Kaitlyn was a Program Coordinator at the Zickler Family Prenatal Pediatrics Institute at Children’s National Hospital, where she led the development of the Nest Supportive Care Program, a retreat-based model designed to support families preparing to welcome a baby with complex medical and developmental needs. That work strengthened her belief that education, preparation, and supportive environments can be transformative.