Dana Petersen evaluates the impact of health and human services programs on health and well-being outcomes. Her work focuses on projects related to primary care, population health, behavioral health, health equity, and linkages to community supports to help people meet their health and social-emotional goals.
Petersen currently co-leads a qualitative site visit study evaluating promising practices for COVID-19 testing and/or vaccination in states and tribal organizations. The study focuses on populations who are medically or socially at disproportionate risk for COVID-19 or related adverse outcomes. This study Is funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. She also currently directs all primary qualitative data collection for the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) project for the California Department of Health and Human Services, including key informant interview, implementation case studies, focus groups, and digital journals.
Previously, Petersen co-led the implementation evaluation of Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+), the largest primary care demonstration funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In this role, she managed longitudinal site visit data collection from more than 80 primary care practices, and was responsible for developing interview protocols, training staff, conducting interviews, and overseeing the coding and analysis of data.
Petersen also served as deputy project director for an evaluation of an action plan, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes by improving health care quality and access, building the capacity of the health workforce, and advancing scientific knowledge and innovation.
Petersen’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Annals of Family Medicine, American Journal of Evaluation, Pain Medicine, Preventing Chronic Disease, Maternal and Child Health Journal and Academic Pediatrics.
Petersen previously held positions at SRI International, the University of California, Berkeley, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Community Partners, and Plan International.
Petersen holds a Ph.D. in health services and policy analysis from the University of California at Berkeley.
