Katie Clarke Adamson

Katie Clarke Adamson has over 34 years of experience in health policy, partnership development and strategic planning in the non-profit, private and government and legislative sectors. 

Currently serving as the Vice President of Health Partnerships and Policy for YMCA of the USA, the national resource office for the nation’s 2700 YMCAs, Katie provides guidance and consultation on healthy living policy, partnerships, and program strategies at the national level and for local Ys and the state alliances of YMCAs. She helps advance healthy living legislative and advocacy strategies at the state and federal level, including the drafting and implementation of legislative initiatives and accompanying policy documents; and, assisting with congressional, corporate and health partnerships. She works to build sustainable health payer and community development strategies for Ys that will help Ys to have their greatest reach and impact, including helping secure public and private payer contracts for Ys to address health and social determinants of health. Katie serves on several national boards and advisory committees.  

Katie helped secure more than $150 million in resources to help the Y scale proven programs and policies to prevent and control chronic disease and disability and address the social drivers of health. With technical assistance to Ys, she helped secure another $220 million for Ys in Community Project Funding with federal agencies to help Ys better meet the health and social needs of their communities.

Katie helped draft bi-partisan legislation that became law and established the National Diabetes Prevention Program at CDC which is helping to scale a national network of recognized community-based diabetes prevention programs enabling more than 700,000 individual access to services. She helped draft bi-partisan legislation, the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act, to provide coverage for diabetes prevention to America’s seniors, which ultimately advanced through an Administrative Rule process. She worked with government and philanthropy to build capacity at Ys and state alliances of Ys to build environments and systems that support healthier communities.

Prior to working at YMCA of the USA, Katie spent several years as a managing director of public law and policy strategies at law firms in DC. She represented 25 chronic disease and disability nonprofit organizations in their work with Congress and federal agencies. She drafted legislation, lobbied for, and secured tens of millions of dollars annually through the appropriations process for these nonprofits.

Katie also spent four years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta where she developed and maintained Congressional and partner relations for the agency serving in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Financial Management Office. There she responded to Congressional inquiries on budgetary and programmatic issues for the agency, drafted Congressional testimony, supported Congressional requests for technical assistance in advancing national chronic disease programming, prepared and supported CDC leadership on Congressional visits and managed over 30 partner relationships for the Agency.

In the earlier part of her career, Katie spent six years on Capitol Hill serving in several legislative roles in Congress, including as Legislative Director in the US House of Representatives. She developed short and long-term strategic plans on appropriations and authorizing legislation and helped secure passage of amendments and public laws, including a bill to establish a national program of cancer registries at the CDC.

Katie also interned for Rep. Patricia Schroeder (CO) and Barry Desmond (MP, Ireland)

Katie is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a BA in Political and Social Thought.