GPSG presidential candidate Katie Heath emphasizes community, health care and transparency

To Katie Heath, prioritizing transparency, fostering community and protecting student access to health care and mental health resources are essential issues. This is why she is running for graduate and professional student government president.

Heath is a fifth-year biomedical engineering Ph.D. student and is the senior vice president of the GPSG. Last year, she was a senator in the GPSG representing the biomedical engineering department. 

“I think the University is really listening to us right now,” Heath said. “I thought it was important that somebody runs who has experience in this and that knows about graduate and professional students and the things that they need now.”

Heath and the GPSG have been working with the Graduate Student Experience Initiative  — a committee that includes the GPSG president and works to assess the experiences of graduate students — to develop a document protecting the rights of graduate and professional students, specifically those who are resident advisors and teaching assistants.

Heath said the goal is to ensure every department and program honors the needs of graduate students who work at the University.

Lauren Hawkinson, the current GPSG president, works with Heath in their respective student government roles. She said Heath has taken the lead on several of this year’s projects, and that the proposed "Student Bill of Rights" was Heath’s "brainchild."

“I honestly cannot say enough good things about Katie,” Hawkinson said. “She cares so much about graduate students here at UNC, she cares so much about UNC, she truly wants to make things better for everyone that's here.”

Another element of well-being Heath wants to address as GPSG president is ensuring students feel they belong at UNC and are surrounded by a strong community. 

“I think one of the things that I have heard the most from all of the graduate and professional students that I've had the opportunity to talk to over the past couple of years, has been that they don't feel like there's a place at [UNC] for them,” Heath said. 

She said in order to do this, she wants to facilitate more programming on South Campus and expand activities that might otherwise be confined to the Pit and Student Union area. 

Abhigna Rao, GPSG chief of staff, said she met Heath last year when they both served as senators for their respective departments. She said Heath’s perspective and positive energy helped shape a large part of the projects they worked on. 

“I think something she brings into every space that she's in is this really positive energy, and this ability to face potential challenges or potential gaps head on and really try to figure out a way around red tape or challenges that we may be facing,” Rao said.

When they were working on a campus safety initiative, Rao said Heath conducted thorough research not only by evaluating current University safety standards but by “crowdsourcing” information and talking to students to hear what they wanted. 

Balancing the needs of all interested parties while making an informed decision is something that Rao said Heath strives to do in her roles and is a trait every GPSG president should have. 

Heath said, if elected, she plans to prioritize communication between the graduate and undergraduate student body presidents in order to stay on the same front and work closely together to benefit the University. She said Hawkinson and Christopher Everett, the current SBP, have had a beneficial relationship this year and their connection is something she wants to repeat as GSPG president.

“We're usually fighting the same fights and doing the same work,” Heath said.

Ensuring the GPSG is transparent with the graduate and professional student body is important to Heath, she said, because she wants the GPSG to remain accountable and work based on the needs of its constituents.

Rao said one of Heath’s leadership qualities she values is spending time with and understanding students and their needs, and that she is open to engaging with students and elevating their voices.

“She's just a good person. She's a good friend. She's thoughtful,” Hawkinson said. “I think those qualities are just as important as experience. So I really think she's got it all.”

Heath is one of two certified candidates for the GPSG presidency. Benjamin King is the other certified candidate. 

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