As senior deputy director of PHII, Daniela Salas O’Connell oversees operational functions and provides organizational strategic leadership for the Institute. In this capacity, Daniela ensures that PHII’s work aligns with and supports its mission and vision.

In strong collaboration with PHII’s executive director, Daniela co-directs ongoing strategic planning, development and implementation. This work includes building key business partnerships that ensure PHII’s long-term sustainability and overseeing funding, day-to-day operations and communications to ensure programmatic growth and stability. 

In her capacity of leading PHII’s ongoing business development, Daniela oversees solicitation of funding from foundation, corporate, and governmental donors. She serves as an internal expert for PHII on planning, grant management, programmatic budgeting, and technical and financial reporting. Daniela draws on her 15 years of experience in program and financial management, strategic implementation, and partnership development to successfully shepherd PHII’s global portfolio of public health projects each year. 

Before assuming the deputy director role, she worked as a project manager for PHII’s Requirements Lab where she led the planning and implementation of multiple health projects—from overseeing work plans, timelines and deliverables to managing contracts, budgets and ensuring all project stakeholders are informed of the status and direction of project activities. Daniela came to PHII after serving four years as a program associate for the Task Force for Global Health’s Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET) program. TEPHINET is a global network of 75 field epidemiology training programs (FETP), strengthening public health systems across more than 100 countries. As the program associate, Daniela managed a multimillion-dollar CDC cooperative agreement and a portfolio of more than 15 projects that focused on health systems capacity building and strengthening FETPs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Daniela supported TEPHINET in establishing branch offices in Guatemala City and Bogotá, Colombia. She also assisted with the program’s communication and networking efforts.

Daniela also worked at Emory University’s School of Medicine, where she developed grant proposals and managed day-to-day operations for multicultural diabetes education programs. Daniela earned a Master of Public Health from Georgia State University and holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Armstrong State University.