Email: dana_at_preventioninstitute_dot_org

Dana Fields-Johnson, MPA, joined Prevention Institute in 2016 and as of April 2026, serves on PI’s executive team as Senior Director of Practice and Impact. With more than 30 years' experience working in public health and leading collective impact initiatives, Dana leads programmatic work across community-centered practice, practitioner knowledge and skill building to advance health, safety and wellbeing; health equity and racial justice; community transformation; and upstream prevention.

As a Director, Dana led a portfolio of projects that support communities, public agencies, and philanthropy partners in strengthening collaborative approaches that address community trauma, build resilience, promote safety, and advance mental health and wellbeing. Across her work, Dana helps communities strengthen prevention ecosystems by building cross-sector partnerships, supporting collaborative leadership, and advancing strategies that address primary prevention, health, and equity.

With a focus on community-centered solutions, Dana has provided strong project leadership to the Communities of Care (CoC) Initiative, a 6-year partnership with the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health where PI served as initiative coordinator. This included technical assistance and capacity-building for CoC partners, community leaders and youth, facilitated through a learning community of 10 collaboratives, all working to strengthen and sustain efforts to transform the neighborhood environments where young people and their families live, learn, work, play and pray to improve resilience, mental health and wellbeing.

Dana’s work at PI has also included coaching and strategic planning with the New York City Department of Health’s Center for Health Equity, partnering with the L.A. Office of Violence Prevention to host community conversations, and guiding staff at the Madison and Dane County (WI) Department of Public Health in the planning and launch of a new citywide Violence Prevention Coalition. Dana was also a core team member, supporting work with the City of Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention in the development of its Blueprint for Peace, and is has worked with the Jacksonville Journey Forward Board (Jacksonville, Florida) in expanding their approach and budget recommendations for community safety.

Dana also provides project leadership for PI’s Opioid and Substance Misuse Prevention work, including a partnership with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to provide technical assistance and planning support to partners across 20 rural counties working to reverse the opioid overdose crisis. This included applying a public health and primary prevention approach using PI’s Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R framework). More recently, Dana has led PI’s work with the CDC to Support “State and Local Governments to Use Opioid Settlement Funds on Evidence-Based Programs that Reduce Overdose Work.” This work produced a landscape scan designed to better understand the uses of settlement funds and resulted in the development of a robust resource hub for those implementing programs and working on policies to address substance misuse.

Dana frequently presents at conferences and expert meetings, making the case for primary prevention and promoting PI’s work, tools and frameworks and their value to communities in improving health, safety, and wellbeing and building resilience. She has presented at the American Public Health Association Conference, the National League of Cities Annual Conference, the Texas Annual Prevention Providers Conference, the East Tennessee Opioid Prevention Conference, and the Ohio Prevention Conference, to name a few.

Dana is a passionate advocate for improving the lives and future opportunities of youth and families in communities that have experienced disinvestment. This is the common thread and driving force throughout her career and stems from her early life growing up in a community that was adversely impacted by the sudden departure of manufacturing jobs and industry. This lived experience provided a deep understanding of how the health of a community and its people are so closely tied to the community’s economic opportunity.

Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2016, Dana served as Director of Programs with the Health Education Council in Sacramento, California, where she was responsible for oversight of agency programs and promoting policy and systems change approaches to healthy eating and active living throughout the region. Previously, she served as the Director for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Director for the Healthy Jacksonville Initiative for the Duval County Health Department in Jacksonville, Florida. She remains personally active in her community, especially by leading health, leadership development, and mentoring efforts for girls and young women through volunteering and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Dana holds a Master of Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia.