Dani Montoya, PhD, MPH

Danielle “Dani” Montoya, PhD, MPH, is a public health professional whose work focuses on health equity and how place and policy shape health. She currently works remotely as a research assistant in the Office of Medicaid Evaluation at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Public Health, where she leads evaluations of Virginia's Medicaid programs. Her dissertation examined how factors like neighborhood environment and the doctor you have affect diabetes and care quality for Hispanics/Latinos. She brings nearly a decade of nonprofit leadership with the Latino Caucus for Public Health, including board service, chairing its membership committee and later its policy and advocacy committee, as well as experience in program development and strategic planning.

Proudly born and raised in Oxnard, Dr. Montoya sees access to green space as a community health issue. She joins MiniNature Reserve with the aim of putting her nonprofit, strategic planning, and evaluation experience to work for the reserve, and of connecting environmental stewardship to the health of the community she grew up in.