Danielle joined the Collaborative in 2026. She earned her BA in Psychology from Butler University and her MA and PhD in Community Psychology from DePaul University. Before joining the team, she worked as a researcher and evaluator in academic, healthcare, and community settings.
What motivates you to do this work?
“In 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.” – Doctor Who
For more than a decade, my work has focused on understanding how people navigate systems — from homelessness services and food access to chronic disease care, veteran support, and STEAM/biomedical workforce development. Across these settings, the questions and methods may shift, but the heart of the work remains the same: listening to people, honoring their stories, and using those stories to deepen understanding and strengthen programs and policies.
That belief is what brought me to qualitative research and to the Social Care in Chronic Disease Collaborative. I am grounded in the idea that people are more than data points; their lived experiences, perspectives, and narratives are essential to producing meaningful insights and guiding solutions that are equitable, effective, and responsive to the realities of their lives.