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donna grande— over 20 years experience in health policy, communications and program development.
Most noted for her accomplishments in tobacco policy, Ms. Grande has developed, managed and advanced national, state and local campaigns working with and through coalitions of business, medicine, nonprofit and public health officials, among others, and streamlined organizational systems to improve effectiveness.
Grande spent seven years at the headquarters of the American Medical Association in Chicago, Illinois, the last two developing an internal infrastructure for securing outside funding support and enhancing external relationships with foundations and federal government agencies to advance public/private initiatives. Grande developed policies and procedures as well as strategic plans for enhancing the relationships between medicine and public health—securing $5 million in grants.
Grande directed the $52 million SmokeLess States National Tobacco Policy Initiative funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and based at the AMA. She managed and directed the program for five years, offering strategic direction, modifying its composition, developing benchmarks and focusing its approach on three key policy outcomes (through coalition efforts in 42 states) to improve health outcomes and reduce disease burden on society.
Prior to her work at the AMA, Ms. Grande served as the Executive Director of Full Court Press, a youth-focused demonstration program in Tucson, Arizona. Funded by a $3.5 million grant from The RWJF, FCP exceeded the goal of reducing teen tobacco use prevalence at a time when youth smoking rates were sky-rocketing. Through the use of applied social marketing tactics and strategic planning, Grande worked with a coalition of partners and youth to encourage the Tucson City Council to pass two local policies and to fight preemption at the state level. The strategic efforts received unprecedented press attention—96 articles and over 18 hours of earned media.
Grande served as the project officer of the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention—known as the ASSIST program—at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. ASSIST was a 7-year, $114 million investment in 17 state health departments working in partnership with the non-profit volunteer-driven chapters of the American Cancer Society to develop coalitions and reduce smoking prevalence rates by 22 percent. The program model was transferred and applied in all 50 states through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and continues to serve as a guiding tool for public health efforts and campaigns.
Prior to her federal government service, Ms. Grande was director of program development and the director of the division of management and technical assistance at HCR, Inc. a woman-owned, management consulting firm specializing in health and health policy research. Grande managed and directed $8 million in federal contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Departments of Education, Transportation and NASA. She wrote the first Report to Congress on Smoking and Health, supported the efforts of two U.S. Surgeon Generals, Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Antonio Novella and the Interagency Committee on Smoking Or Health.
Skilled in federal contracting, foundation grant-making, strategic organizing and grounded in health policy, Grande has written/presented papers nationally and internationally. She co-authored a chapter in the ASSIST monograph of the NCI and served on the Editorial Review Board. She served as Chairperson for the Prevention Committee of the 11th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health and developed 22 sessions with international colleagues. She presented papers in Beijing, China and Paris, France and served on two international delegations to advise health officials (from former eastern block countries) in Warsaw, Poland and Lyon, France with the Middle Eastern Cancer Consortium.
Ms. Grande has a bachelors of science degree cum laude in Journalism (double major in German) from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a masters degree in Marketing and General Administration from the University of Maryland.
Most noted for her accomplishments in tobacco policy, Ms. Grande has developed, managed and advanced national, state and local campaigns working with and through coalitions of business, medicine, nonprofit and public health officials, among others, and streamlined organizational systems to improve effectiveness.
Grande spent seven years at the headquarters of the American Medical Association in Chicago, Illinois, the last two developing an internal infrastructure for securing outside funding support and enhancing external relationships with foundations and federal government agencies to advance public/private initiatives. Grande developed policies and procedures as well as strategic plans for enhancing the relationships between medicine and public health—securing $5 million in grants.
Grande directed the $52 million SmokeLess States National Tobacco Policy Initiative funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and based at the AMA. She managed and directed the program for five years, offering strategic direction, modifying its composition, developing benchmarks and focusing its approach on three key policy outcomes (through coalition efforts in 42 states) to improve health outcomes and reduce disease burden on society.
Prior to her work at the AMA, Ms. Grande served as the Executive Director of Full Court Press, a youth-focused demonstration program in Tucson, Arizona. Funded by a $3.5 million grant from The RWJF, FCP exceeded the goal of reducing teen tobacco use prevalence at a time when youth smoking rates were sky-rocketing. Through the use of applied social marketing tactics and strategic planning, Grande worked with a coalition of partners and youth to encourage the Tucson City Council to pass two local policies and to fight preemption at the state level. The strategic efforts received unprecedented press attention—96 articles and over 18 hours of earned media.
Grande served as the project officer of the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention—known as the ASSIST program—at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. ASSIST was a 7-year, $114 million investment in 17 state health departments working in partnership with the non-profit volunteer-driven chapters of the American Cancer Society to develop coalitions and reduce smoking prevalence rates by 22 percent. The program model was transferred and applied in all 50 states through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and continues to serve as a guiding tool for public health efforts and campaigns.
Prior to her federal government service, Ms. Grande was director of program development and the director of the division of management and technical assistance at HCR, Inc. a woman-owned, management consulting firm specializing in health and health policy research. Grande managed and directed $8 million in federal contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Departments of Education, Transportation and NASA. She wrote the first Report to Congress on Smoking and Health, supported the efforts of two U.S. Surgeon Generals, Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Antonio Novella and the Interagency Committee on Smoking Or Health.
Skilled in federal contracting, foundation grant-making, strategic organizing and grounded in health policy, Grande has written/presented papers nationally and internationally. She co-authored a chapter in the ASSIST monograph of the NCI and served on the Editorial Review Board. She served as Chairperson for the Prevention Committee of the 11th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health and developed 22 sessions with international colleagues. She presented papers in Beijing, China and Paris, France and served on two international delegations to advise health officials (from former eastern block countries) in Warsaw, Poland and Lyon, France with the Middle Eastern Cancer Consortium.
Ms. Grande has a bachelors of science degree cum laude in Journalism (double major in German) from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a masters degree in Marketing and General Administration from the University of Maryland.
