about me

Pronunciation: Davene rhymes with ravine [listen: đź‘‚]

I am a health care researcher with expertise in a range of decision sciences methods that many perceive to be disparate, but which I have proven to be complementary tools for the development and adoption of interventions and policies to improve pediatric chronic disease management. The majority of my work focuses on pediatric health, obesity, and diabetes. I have been PI of research funded by NIH, AHRQ, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Association.  You can view my published research at PubMed or Google Scholar. 

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine, a research and academic partnership between the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School. There, I am the Interim Director of the Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CheRP). I am also on faculty in the Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy and the Harvard-Wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship. From 2012-2019, I was on faculty at the University of Washington in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Pharmacy.

In 2004, I received a BS in Polymer and Textile Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology where I was a President’s Scholar and ORISE Fellow. I earned my PhD in Health Policy and Decision Sciences from Harvard University in 2012 where I received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. I am a former Trustee of the Society for Medical Decision Making, am the co-Chair of the Decision Sciences for Child Health Collaborative, am a Statistical and Methods Reviewer for JAMA Network Open, and am on the Editorial Board of Applied Health Economics and Health Policy. 

I am an accomplished public speaker and have given over 85 invited research and career development lectures. I am an active user of social media and advise academics on how to effectively use social media to promote their careers. I also enjoy devising clever research study acronyms.

In my free time, I enjoy sewing, exploring libraries, following Formula 1 racing (#44), and competitive storytelling.

Academic Affiliations

Associate Professor, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

Postdoctoral Fellowship Affiliations

Faculty, Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy

Affiliate Faculty, Center for Health Decision Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH)

Affiliate Faculty, University of Washington Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute

Professional Societies

Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM)

American Heart Association

International Health Economics Association

American Diabetes Association

Editorial Activities