Kels Bowman

About Kels Bowman

Kels Bowman is a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University\'s Sanford School of Public Policy, where her research focuses on poverty, mental health, and family well-being. She holds a BA in Political Science with a Civic and Global Leadership Certificate from Sewanee: The University of the South and a Master of Public Policy from American University. Kels is a doctoral candidate whose work focuses on survey design, measurement, and developing tools to understand material hardship better. She is the lead developer of the Period Product Insecurity Scale, a novel survey instrument designed to capture the financial and emotional burdens of insufficient access to menstrual products. She has overseen the scale’s development process, including cognitive interviews, pilot testing, and large-scale national validation. Kels\' broader research uses original survey data to examine how public perceptions of deservingness shape policies and access to support for people experiencing poverty. She investigates how U.S. states function as laboratories of democracy, with a particular focus on how state-level responses to basic needs insecurity can inform national policy development. In addition to survey research, Kels leads a policy tracking project that has coded over 1,400 state bills related to menstrual access, exploring legislative trends and the influence of public attitudes. She collaborates with partners, including the National Diaper Bank Network, the Alliance for Period Supplies and the Diaper Bank of North Carolina, to ensure that her research directly informs policy and practice. Across all her work, Kels is committed to generating actionable insights that improve outcomes for families.

Experience

1. Director of Data and Analytics

   Prenatal-To-3 Policy Impact Center

   Oct 2025 — Present

Education

• The University of the South

  Bachelor of Arts - BA

  2015 — 2019

• Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

• School of Public Affairs, American University

  Master of Public Policy - MPP

  2019 — 2021