Danielle was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, and she is of Latinx and American Indian (Acoma Pueblo and Diné) descent. Danielle obtained a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from the University of New Mexico in 2009 and found her passion for Community Psychology when she was an undergraduate student in the Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project and worked with a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Danielle obtained a M.S.Ed from the University of Miami in 2018, majoring in Community and Social Change and minoring in Community Youth Development, and she was able to combine her graduate studies with Peace Corps service through the Peace Corps Master’s International Program. Danielle served as a Health Volunteer in Uganda from 2015-2018, extending her two-year service to complete a peer education program that she co-developed and co-implemented with adolescents living with HIV in her community.  

Before her time at UVNR, Danielle worked at UNM and has a strong background conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR). She has coordinated various CBPR projects, including federally funded studies from the National Institute of Mental Health & the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. Through her work, she has collaborated with various underserved communities in New Mexico, including newcomers but also Hispanic and American Indian populations. Danielle has worked in areas that include mental and physical health, nutrition, and cancer education in both urban and rural settings, and her overall career goals are to continue to partner with communities to promote healing, mental health, wellbeing, and social justice by addressing the social determinants of health caused by structural and systemic inequities.