URI Nursing professor serving on governor’s team to ‘propel RI into next decade’

November 29, 2021

Assistant Professor Dahianna Lopez is public health advisor on Gov. Dan McKee’s new taskforce

URI College of Nursing Assistant Professor Dahianna Lopez will play a key role in Gov. Dan McKee’s plan “to build a more resilient, prosperous, and equitable state,” serving on the governor’s new advisory team tasked with creating a framework and guiding document for the state over the next decade.

Dr. Lopez will serve as the representative for public health and healthcare, and has already been actively engaged in soliciting community input from multiple stakeholders across the state. She has joined other education, health and civic leaders in implementing a working draft for the state’s future, which was developed after a Facebook live RI 2030 Community Conversations event earlier this year. The document also highlights current state agency initiatives in the relevant topic areas, suggests broad goals for the state over the next decade, and recommends short-term and long-term actions the state should take to reach those goals.

“We are so proud of Dahianna and the critical role she will be playing
in advancing the health and well-being of the citizens of Rhode Island,” said URI nursing Professor Kim Arcoleo. “She is yet another example of the important contributions our faculty members are making at the state and national levels.”

Lopez has spent much of her career working toward improving public health. In addition to her nursing degree, she holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard University, and a master’s in community health services from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research has focused on injury prevention, especially bicycle and pedestrian injuries, as well as opioid overdoses. She has addressed these concerns in applied public health settings throughout Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Providence. She is currently engaged in a funded study examining opioid use in motor vehicles, with the goal of understanding the extent of the problem and developing interventions to address it.

Public health is just one of the areas the state taskforce will address. Each of the topic areas focuses on how to make Rhode Island a more prosperous, equitable and resilient state. The topic areas focused include:

  • Supporting Small Business
  • Investing in our Children, Families, and Early Education 
  • Strengthening K-12 Education
  • Enhancing Workforce Development and Post-Secondary Education
  • Prioritizing Housing
  • Driving Economic Growth
  • Enhancing Public Health and Wellness
  • Addressing Climate Change
  • Advancing Infrastructure and Transportation
  • Moving State Government into 2030

This isn’t Lopez’ first time working with the state of Rhode Island to address public health. In addition to her research studies, she was also among a group of nursing professors from URI who volunteered with the state Department of Health during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. She and other professors and health professionals worked at the department’s call center, answering questions and helping educate the public on the burgeoning pandemic.