Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso, MD, MPH

About

Dr. Nana Twum-Danso is a public health and preventive medicine physician with more than 20 years of experience in health policy, practice, strategy, monitoring, learning, evaluation, research, and philanthropy at local, national, and international levels. She has technical expertise in quality improvement, patient safety, learning systems development, large-scale change management, health systems strengthening, maternal and child health, parasitic disease control and pharmocovigilance. Her work experience has spanned Latin America, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the US.

Dr. Twum-Danso is currently Senior Vice President at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a non-profit organization committed to improving health and health care around the world, where she oversees results-oriented work with health care and public health systems. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

Previously, Dr. Twum-Danso was Managing Director for Health at The Rockefeller Foundation where she oversaw a strategy designed to transform the practice of public health through data science and developed a grant portfolio to support institutions responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Latin America, and Africa. She began her public health career in technical and managerial roles in parasitic disease control at The Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta before joining IHI in 2008 to lead its flagship nationwide quality improvement initiative in Ghana for four years. She remained in the field of quality improvement as a Senior Program Officer in the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Department at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and later as an independent consultant. Dr. Twum-Danso also founded and led MAZA, a social enterprise that provided on-demand transportation for pregnant women and sick infants in remote areas of Ghana while also improving livelihoods for local drivers, farmers, and traders. 

Dr. Twum-Danso received her undergraduate and medical education from Harvard University and her public health and preventive medicine residency training from Emory University. She has been a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine since 2006 and is a member of both the International Society for Quality in Health Care and Health Systems Global.

Honors and Awards

Humanism in Medicine Award Arnold P. Gold Foundation
2019,

Echoing Green Global Fellowship Program
2016

Jane Rainie Opel Young Alumna Award for Outstanding Contribution to Profession
2004

William H. & Anne E. Foege Global Health Scholarship
2000

NBI Healthcare Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award
1998,

Harvard Committee on African Studies Research Fellowship
1993

Teaching Interests

- Advising master's and doctoral students on their theses and dissertations

Practice Interests

- Improving physical access to health care through transportation
- Improving the quality of health care provided in hospitals and clinics, especially obstetric and neonatal care
- Health education and risk communication in maternal and child health
- Training and coaching in quality improvement methods

Education