Leigh Alderman

Leigh Alderman is a program officer on the Health Program team at The Kresge Foundation. Joining in 2026, she focuses on the Community Safety and other health program initiatives intended to drive sustainable, community-led systems change towards equitable well-being. 

She previously served as a senior advisor to the CEO and assistant project director at Georgia State University’s Georgia Health Policy Center. There, she worked to strengthen the capacity of communities and multi-sector organizations at the local, state, national, and global levels in integrative strategic planning, leadership, learning-oriented conversations, and systems thinking to build more equitable policies and systems. Prior to that, Leigh was a fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Law Program, and spent over a decade before that as in-house corporate and national litigation counsel in the private sector. Throughout her career, Leigh strives to center her values of relationship, fairness, and transparency to address emerging conditions, leveraging community expertise, and creative, collaborative strategy. 

Leigh holds a B.S. in organizational psychology from California State University, a J.D. from California Western School of Law, an M.P.H. from the University of Washington, and a DrPH from Georgia State University. She also previously served on the board of directors for the Southeastern Energy Efficiency Alliance, and event volunteer for Release Atlanta.