The UNC School of Government is pleased to welcome Kirsten Leloudis as the newest member of its faculty. Leloudis joins the Law and Finance Division as assistant professor of public law and government, as one of the School’s subject matter experts in public health law. 

In her role at the School, Leloudis will provide instruction and advising to employees of state and local health departments as well as various other public officials with an interest in public health law. She will share this responsibility with Jill D. Moore, School faculty member who has reduced her SOG work to half-time while she serves as the University’s secretary of the faculty.

Leloudis received both a J.D. and a master of public health from UNC. The opportunity to examine issues of public health—on a collective rather than individual level—drove her academic and professional pursuits.

“I am drawn to the community-oriented nature of public health,” Leloudis said. “Rather than ask ‘Why is this individual person before me ill and how do I treat them?,’ public health asks ‘What’s going on that is causing certain individuals in this community to be unwell and what can we do to improve health at the population level?’” 

Prior to joining the School, Leloudis served as an attorney for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services within the Office of Regulatory and Legal Affairs in the Division of Public Health. She assumed the role at a critical juncture, just months after joining the Department came the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an immediately immersive challenge that Leloudis described as nothing shy of “out of the frying pan, into the fire.”

 “In addition to becoming steeped in North Carolina public health law, I got to work with public health subject matter experts at both the state and local level, which gave me a greater understanding of our state’s public health system and programs,” she said.

Upon leaving the Division, Leloudis expressed gratitude for the experience. She believes it prepared her well for the wide variety of public health issues she is sure to address during her tenure at the School.

“I am grateful to have had those opportunities and plan to use the skills and knowledge I developed in my new position with the School,” she said.

Looking ahead, Leloudis’s priorities are clear. In line with the School’s mission, she is eager to make a lasting and positive impact on the state’s public health landscape.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to support North Carolina’s governmental public health workforce and help improve the lives and wellbeing of North Carolinians.”