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CPH 30 - Purple, Perspective, and Public Health: A Conversation with Natasha Knight
CPH 30 - Purple, Perspective, and Public Health: A Conversation with Natasha Knight
Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health strategist whose "purple philosophy"—bold and creative, steady and calm—guides how she shows up for equity. In this episode, she talks about the courage it took to leave a dream role at the National Institutes of Health and step into corporate citizenship at Altria, where she leads strategy for underage prevention and cessation support. We get into owning your choices, "baking equity into the batter" instead of icing it on top, moving home to North Carolina, surviving a ground-up home build, and a new vision: trauma-informed, accessible interior design rooted in public health.
Meet Dr. Natasha Knight
Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health leader and proud purple enthusiast. For her, purple is more than a favorite color. It represents courage, creativity, and balance. It blends the calm of blue with the boldness of red, and that's how she has approached her 15+ year career: grounding herself in evidence and empathy while pushing boldly for equity and change.
Dr. Knight currently serves as Manager of Underage Prevention and Cessation Support at Altria Client Services, where she leads equity-informed strategies to prevent underage tobacco use and support people on their quit journeys. Trained as a behavioral scientist with a PhD, MPH, and MBA, her path has also included roles at the National Cancer Institute and UNC Greensboro, where she focused on health disparities, community engagement, and mentoring the next generation of public health leaders.
At her core, she is passionate about using data, strategy, and empathy to create solutions that make health more equitable and accessible. And in her spare time, she is a budding interior stylist, exploring how to bring well-being and equity into the spaces where people live and work. For Dr. Knight, courage in public health -- and in design -- means standing firm in spaces where equity isn't always the default, and helping communities not just survive, but thrive.
Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast
Conversation Highlights
- Owning the pivot: Why Dr. Knight left a coveted NIH role to pursue impact in corporate citizenship—and what it means to align work with values.
- Public health on the inside: Leading underage prevention and cessation support strategy at Altria; bringing evidence and ethics to a complex space.
- The purple philosophy: Creative + calm as a leadership stance; standing up when it matters, without posturing.
- Equity isn't icing: Her on-the-spot metaphor for building systems—equity has to be mixed into the recipe, not smeared on at the end.
- Home as health: The cross-country move, a long home build, learning to trust the process, and speaking up when something isn't right.
- Design for well-being: Dr, Knight's vision for trauma-informed, accessible interior design so everyday spaces help people feel safe, centered, and well.
- Collective courage: Black women shouldn't have to carry equity work alone; "strength in numbers" matters when we're united.
"There's no way that equity can truly be baked in that way, if you're putting it as the icing as opposed to mixing it in with the eggs and the sugar and the flour."— Dr. Natasha Knight
Stay In Touch:
Dr. Natasha Knight on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/naknightphd/
Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]
Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/
www.CourageousPublicHealth.com
Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6
**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**
Public Health Consulting To Support You
At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals. We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!
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By Kristi McClamrochCPH 30 - Purple, Perspective, and Public Health: A Conversation with Natasha Knight
Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health strategist whose "purple philosophy"—bold and creative, steady and calm—guides how she shows up for equity. In this episode, she talks about the courage it took to leave a dream role at the National Institutes of Health and step into corporate citizenship at Altria, where she leads strategy for underage prevention and cessation support. We get into owning your choices, "baking equity into the batter" instead of icing it on top, moving home to North Carolina, surviving a ground-up home build, and a new vision: trauma-informed, accessible interior design rooted in public health.
Meet Dr. Natasha Knight
Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health leader and proud purple enthusiast. For her, purple is more than a favorite color. It represents courage, creativity, and balance. It blends the calm of blue with the boldness of red, and that's how she has approached her 15+ year career: grounding herself in evidence and empathy while pushing boldly for equity and change.
Dr. Knight currently serves as Manager of Underage Prevention and Cessation Support at Altria Client Services, where she leads equity-informed strategies to prevent underage tobacco use and support people on their quit journeys. Trained as a behavioral scientist with a PhD, MPH, and MBA, her path has also included roles at the National Cancer Institute and UNC Greensboro, where she focused on health disparities, community engagement, and mentoring the next generation of public health leaders.
At her core, she is passionate about using data, strategy, and empathy to create solutions that make health more equitable and accessible. And in her spare time, she is a budding interior stylist, exploring how to bring well-being and equity into the spaces where people live and work. For Dr. Knight, courage in public health -- and in design -- means standing firm in spaces where equity isn't always the default, and helping communities not just survive, but thrive.
Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast
Conversation Highlights
- Owning the pivot: Why Dr. Knight left a coveted NIH role to pursue impact in corporate citizenship—and what it means to align work with values.
- Public health on the inside: Leading underage prevention and cessation support strategy at Altria; bringing evidence and ethics to a complex space.
- The purple philosophy: Creative + calm as a leadership stance; standing up when it matters, without posturing.
- Equity isn't icing: Her on-the-spot metaphor for building systems—equity has to be mixed into the recipe, not smeared on at the end.
- Home as health: The cross-country move, a long home build, learning to trust the process, and speaking up when something isn't right.
- Design for well-being: Dr, Knight's vision for trauma-informed, accessible interior design so everyday spaces help people feel safe, centered, and well.
- Collective courage: Black women shouldn't have to carry equity work alone; "strength in numbers" matters when we're united.
"There's no way that equity can truly be baked in that way, if you're putting it as the icing as opposed to mixing it in with the eggs and the sugar and the flour."— Dr. Natasha Knight
Stay In Touch:
Dr. Natasha Knight on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/naknightphd/
Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]
Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/
www.CourageousPublicHealth.com
Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6
**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**
Public Health Consulting To Support You
At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals. We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!