about Davene
about Davene
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Bio
I am a decision scientist whose research examines how patients, families, clinicians, and payers make choices about health care resources under complexity and uncertainty — and how those decisions can be better supported through policy, intervention design, and system-level change.
My research is mostly centered on chronic metabolic disease: childhood obesity, diabetes management, and more recently, the uptake and discontinuation of GLP-1 therapies. My team uses descriptive, quasi-experimental, and experimental methods from the fields of decision sciences, health services research, and health policy including stated preference elicitation, decision analytic modeling, economic evaluation, qualitative research, and statistical analyses of survey and real-world EHR, claims, and clinic data.
My particular strength is synthesis — drawing connections across methods and fields that don't usually intersect, and turning those connections into a cohesive narrative of research questions worth pursuing. I have been Principal Investigator on research funded by NIH, AHRQ, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Association. I am an accomplished public speaker who has given over 100 invited talks. Read a summary of my research or view my published research on 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 Associate Director of the Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CHeRP). I am also the Associate Director of the Harvard-Wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and core faculty in the interfaculty Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy. From 2012-2019, I was an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Pharmacy and a Principal Investigator at the Seattle Children's Research Institute.
I received a BS in Polymer and Textile Chemistry in 2004 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 was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
In my free time, I enjoy exploring libraries, archery, sewing, Formula 1 racing (#44), and competitive storytelling.
Mentorship & Leadership
Mentorship & Leadership
I've mentored more than 20 scientists doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. From 2024-2025, I served as Interim Director of the Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CHeRP), an 18-month appointment leading a research and policy organization through strategic planning and a leadership transition. In recognition of my mentoring contributions, I was awarded the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Gordon Moore Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2023.
My approach centers on sponsorship as much as advising: training people to ask meaningful questions and apply rigorous methods, then actively connecting them to the collaborations, funding, and opportunities that support their independent research careers. My longitudinal leadership development experiences have enhanced my skills in strategic planning, conflict management, team leadership, communication, negotiation, and career development coaching.
Formal training
Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) 🔗
Completed CIMER mentor training, 2023
Trained Facilitator for the Harvard Medical School Core for Mentorship Excellence, delivering evidence-based mentorship training to mentors, 2024-present 🔗
Enhancing the Success of Translational and Outcomes Researchers Through Programmatic Mentorship (E-STOP), an evidence-based educational program aimed at empowering leaders to intervene and reduce harassment in biomedical research, 2025 🔗
National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity Faculty Success Program, 2024
Harvard Medical School Leadership Development Course for Physicians and Scientists, 2021 🔗
American Heart Association Research Leaders Academy, 2017
Selected Publications
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cardiovascular Science: Anticipating Problems and Potential Solutions: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association. Circulation, 2021. Contributing author. 📄
Effective and Inclusive Mentorship in the Field of Epidemiology. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2024. Contributing author. 📄
Academic Affiliations
Academic Affiliations
Associate Professor, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
Associate Director, Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CHeRP)
Faculty Member, Division of Chronic Disease Across the Lifecourse (CoRAL)
Postdoctoral Fellowship Affiliations
Associate Director, Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program
Faculty Member, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) Educational Program in Cancer Prevention
Faculty Member, Harvard Medical School Fellowship in General Medicine and Primary Care
Faculty, Harvard PhD Program in Health Policy
Committee for Higher Degrees in Health Policy
Health Policy Graduate Curricular Committee
Admissions Committee
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Health Decision Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH)
Facilitator, Harvard Medical School Core for Mentorship Excellence
Affiliate Faculty, University of Washington Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute
Editorial Activities
Editorial Activities
2022— Editorial Board, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
2022— Statistics and Methods Reviewer, JAMA Network Open
Ad Hoc Reviewer: American Journal of Managed Care, Applied Clinical Informatics, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Behavioral Public Policy, Childhood Obesity, Health Affairs, Healthcare, International Journal of Obesity, JAMA, JAMA Health Forum, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Psychiatry, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Hospital Medicine, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Medical Decision Making, Medical Decision Making Policy & Practice, Obesity, New England Journal of Medicine, The Patient, Pediatrics, Pharmacoeconomics, PLOS One, Public Health Nutrition, Value in Health
Professional Society Leadership
Professional Society Leadership
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM)
2024-2025 Nominations Committee
2022 Co-Chair, 44th Annual Meeting [Better for Whom? Advancing Equity in Medical Decision Making]
2020-2024 Co-Chair, Decision Sciences for Child Health Collaborative
2019-2022 Trustee
2019-2020 Social Media Chair, North American Annual Meeting
2020-2023 Co-Chair, Digital Communications Committee
2014- Abstract Reviewer
2011- Member
2023- Value Assessment Task Force, Food Is Medicine Initiative
2020—2021 Chair, Funding Subcommittee Working Group on Diversity & Inclusion
2017—2022 Oversight Advisory Committee, Children's Strategically Focused Research Network
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