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Kasia Smith
Health Coaching Lead @ Pillar (YC S21) 🌿 Board Certified Coach - Published Neuropsychology Researcher - Former Hot Air Balloonist
Kasia Smith is the Head of Provider Network & Health Coaching and a founding team member at Pillar (YC S21), a company that provides workforce and technology solutions for launching or scaling in-house coaching programs.13 She is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with extensive experience in the health and wellness industry.13
Professional Background
Kasia's career spans various roles:
- Clinical Research Assistant at Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center - Yale University (2008)
- Research Assistant at the University of Connecticut Health Center (2008)
- Professional Liability Broker at S.H. Smith & Company Inc. (2010)
- Professional Liability Lead Underwriter at RT Specialty (2015)
- Co-founder of H Baby Co, an eco-friendly e-commerce brand (2017)
- Executive Wellness Coach at Copilot Wellness (2020)
- Consulting Member at The Upside (2021)
- Head of Health Coaching - Founding Team at Pillar (2021)1
Education and Certifications
Kasia holds multiple degrees and certifications:
- Bachelor of Science in Biology with a Minor in Spanish from Emory University
- Graduate degree in Health and Wellness Coach Training from Emory University
- Currently pursuing studies in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Extension School
- Certified Health & Wellness Coach (Emory University, 2019)
- Registered Professional Liability Underwriter (PLUS, Inc., 2012)
- Property & Casualty Insurance Producer (Connecticut Insurance Department, 2011)
- National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBME, 2020)1
At Pillar, Kasia leads a workforce of over 1,000 vetted health coaching providers.3 She is passionate about building solutions that have a significant impact on underserved communities2 and has found a role at Pillar that aligns perfectly with her career goals.4
Highlights
Building healthy habits before pregnancy is one of the best ways to ensure a positive start for both parent and baby.
In a world where unhealthy habits like poor diet and lack of exercise are all too common, taking control of your health before conception can make a significant difference.
This week's #ResearchwithPillar highlights a 2024 study by Monash University that evaluated the engagement and acceptability of a digital preconception intervention. The intervention comprised digital educational materials, ongoing text messaging, and remotely delivered health coaching via telephone & video.
🔻 Participants: 298 women aged 18-44 planning to conceive within 12 months.
🔻 Intervention Groups: n=153 randomized to telephone coaching and n=145 to video coaching; both groups received digital educational materials covering lifestyle topics, including nutrition and physical activity.
🔻 Coaching Sessions: Delivered one-on-one at 1-4 weeks after enrollment and again 6-8 weeks later.
Key Findings:
✅ 76.2% attended both coaching sessions, with similar participation rates for telehealth (75.2%) and videoconferencing (77.2%) (p = 0.469)
✅ All participants logged into the digital platform, with 90.6% accessing educational materials and 91.3% using behavior change tools.
✅ Post-intervention evaluation (n = 217 participants) demonstrated that approximately 90% found the digital module engaging, meeting information needs, would recommend the program, and were satisfied with the support.
🗨️ "The most valued intervention component was personalized coaching, and encouragingly, delivery via telephone or videoconference did not alter engagement or acceptability. Intervention components supporting the individualized health coaching and the digital platform were highly accessed but with declining engagement over time. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of personalized, individual coaching as a cornerstone of healthy lifestyle intervention designs with flexibility in delivery methods to maximize program acceptability."
#fertility #reproductivehealth #healthcoaching
Pillar is a white-label care enablement solution transforming how organizations scale engagement with their resources. Our mobile-friendly experience centralizes access to their suite of healthcare services, digital benefits, and educational programming while surfacing the right resource at the right time using automated navigation workflows. Pillar’s platform simultaneously captures engagement, satisfaction, and utilization data, enabling our partners to maximize the value of their resources and improve operational efficiency.
For organizations seeking human-led engagement, Pillar offers staffing and placement solutions from our leading workforce of over 1,000 vetted health coaching providers.
Healthcare partners, reach out and learn more about Pillar:
The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)'s "Find a Practitioner" database received over 1.5 million unique views in 2022—a testament to the growing interest in personalized, patient-centered care that takes into account the unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to a person’s health.
This week's #ResearchwithPillar spotlights a 2024 randomized controlled trial published by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, IFM, and Functional Medicine Coaching Academy Inc., which evaluated the efficacy of functional medicine health coaching in elimination diet compliance and patient-reported outcomes.
Key aspects of the study include:
🔻 Sample: 125 adults (> 18 years), who agreed to adopt the elimination diet outlined by IFM (n=61 intervention, n=64 control).
🔻 Intervention: The intervention group received up to 5 virtual health coach sessions over 10 weeks while the control group completed a self-guided elimination diet.
Key findings:
✅ Statistically and clinically significant improvements in self-reported mental health scores measured by the PROMIS GH-mental health (P=0.0038) in the functional medicine health coaching arm compared to the control.
✅ Significant improvements in the Medical Symptom Questionnaire MSQ (P=0.047) in the intervention arm receiving coaching.
🗨️ "This randomized controlled trial revealed that virtually-delivered functional medicine health coaching was feasible and associated with superior elimination diet compliance as compared to a typical self-guided elimination diet control situation."
#healthcoach #functionalmedicine
Pillar is a white-label care enablement solution transforming how organizations scale engagement with their resources. Our mobile-friendly experience centralizes access to their suite of healthcare services, digital benefits, and educational programming while surfacing the right resource at the right time using automated navigation workflows. Pillar’s platform simultaneously captures engagement, satisfaction, and utilization data, enabling our partners to maximize the value of their resources and improve operational efficiency.
For organizations seeking human-led engagement, Pillar offers staffing and placement solutions from our leading workforce of over 1,000 vetted health coaching providers.
➡➡ We're recruiting health coaches with training in functional medicine for exciting part-time roles! To learn more and join our network visit:
