As the director of the practice support business unit at PHII, Lura Daussat leads PHII’s technical assistance efforts to build informatics capacity within jurisdictional public health agencies. In this role, Lura helms a team of expert informaticians and directs their work of using evidence-based informatics practices to improve public health practice. She also partners directly with PHII funders to ensure projects remain aligned with strategic public health initiatives to improve health outcomes.

With nearly two decades of experience in public health practice, Lura is adept in public health program management, project direction, and informatics planning and partnership. Her expertise in translating raw data into information for decision-making has continued to elevate PHII’s capabilities in providing informatics services to health organizations. 

Lura first came to PHII as a senior informatics analyst before moving into her current leadership role. Previously, Lura spent over a decade in the private sector, academia and nonprofits. During this time, Lura partnered with state public health programs that included newborn hearing screening, critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening, and newborn bloodspot screening as they implemented new information systems. Throughout much of her career, Lura has specialized in interoperability and data standards within public health and has authored implementation guides for HL7 on exchanging data from devices to public health.

Lura holds an MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a BS in biology from the University of North Texas. She served three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana between her undergraduate and graduate programs, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Georgia State University’s DrPH program.