Dannai Wilson, MS, is the Program Manager of Maternal and Child Health at the Allegheny County Health Department. As a Pittsburgh native and current resident, she has served Southwestern Pennsylvania for more than 20 years, working in social services, public health, and nonprofit and business administration. She is a Carlow University alumna, with a bachelor's degree in Communications and a master's degree in Organizational Leadership.
Dannai is an expert in community outreach, program development, community organizing, community marketing, and raising public awareness of health disparities. She has and continues to advocate for all populations through scholarships, national and local presentations, training initiatives, strategic planning, and community field work.
Dannai has dedicated her career to supporting the county’s most vulnerable, under-served populations and addressing health inequities. Her focus is always on improving the quality of life for minority populations, but she is especially invested in the health and well-being of women and their children.
Partnering with the Department of Human Services, she helped lead a campaign called “Open Doors to Home Visiting,” which raised awareness about the Allegheny Link Line, connecting mothers to home-visiting services. Her work with the Allegheny County Breastfeeding Coalition has helped normalize breastfeeding in the region.
Before becoming a leader in the Allegheny County Health Department, she was a leader at Healthy Start, Inc., where she served for more than eight years as a Perinatal Systems Liaison.
In her leadership role on the Infant Mortality Strategic Planning Committee, she spearheaded efforts to address health disparities and improve outcomes with courage, integrity, and compassion. She led her division to embrace change and assisted staff members in developing the tools and language needed to make a difference in the overall well-being of the community.
Other involvement includes acting as the Leadership Project Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh, and the AmeriCorps Program Manager and Public Health Administrator, both within the Allegheny County Health Department. She was recently appointed to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
Dannai is a true example of a leading woman in healthcare because after more than 20 years of helping people in her field, others consider her spark and excitement for health-related programming “contagious.” Her compassion for others shines in everything she does.
Dannai has made a positive difference for women, children, and families through her work, and she looks forward to the day when all Pittsburgh residents are able to experience and realize all that this great city has to offer.