Kathleen M. Powis

Kate Powis, MD, MPH, MBA is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School with clinical appointments in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and a research appointment in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Kate’s research is focused on etiologies underlying health disparities of HIV-exposed uninfected infants and children in resource-limited settings and she is conducting clinical trials to identify feasible mechanisms to mitigate disparities. She is currently following a cohort of HIV-exposed uninfected infants in Botswana to explore the evolution of gut microbiome in the first year of life and determine whether differences in the evolution of gut microbiome between HIV-exposed uninfected infants and HIV-unexposed infants results in differences in immune system development and functioning. In a Kenya-based study, she is exploring whether a multi-sectoral intervention targeting food insecurity in HIV-affected households can improve health, growth, and neurodevelopment of HIV-exposed