Emily McCallum

As a manager in Ascendient’s Strategy practice, Emily is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the Community Health Needs Assessment process. She also leverages her public health background to support various strategic planning and health equity engagements for health department and health system clients.

Emily enjoys marrying data and statistics with direct feedback from local residents to tell a story about the health and social needs impacting a community’s well-being. A major component of any CHNA is getting out into the community to listen and understand the challenges residents face in their everyday lives. These efforts can give a real voice to people from marginalized communities who aren’t always used to being heard in a meaningful way, and Emily enjoys seeing health leaders transform such feedback into targeted interventions that improve the health of the entire community.

Although she was raised in Minnesota, her husband’s Navy career took her to San Diego for a decade, where she earned her MPH and spent seven years working in Strategic Planning and Community Benefit at Sharp Healthcare. She joined Ascendient full time in 2023 after moving to North Carolina. Emily lives in Raleigh with her husband, two cats and two dogs. When she’s not at work, she enjoys yoga, puzzles of all types, traveling, and (especially) trying new restaurants.

Emily is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and holds a certificate as a Business Intelligence Specialist from the Healthcare Financial Management Association. She is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and its local chapter, the Triangle Health Executives Forum.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

– Helen Keller