Danielle DeCosta is a director at AcademyHealth where she is responsible for initiatives to enhance the impact and relevance of health services research in practice and policy. Her portfolio spans topics including reproductive health equity, research impact assessment, equitable grantmaking, international knowledge exchange and learning, and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the research workforce. In this role, her responsibilities include leading learning collaboratives and communities of practice, program management and strategy, qualitative research and analysis, proposal review, impact evaluation, and the application of human-centered design to drive innovation in the research enterprise.
Prior to joining AcademyHealth, Danielle worked for the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, providing communications, policy advocacy, and other technical assistance to the foundation's grantmaking program to improve the system of care for children with special health care needs. Danielle also supported a program to expand contraceptive access in metropolitan hubs in Asia and Africa through the Gates Institute within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, consulted on a USAID community-building initiative in Jamaica, and interned with the Alameda County Public Health Department. Danielle holds an M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in health systems and policy and a B.S. in biology from Stanford University.