Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, Ph.D., N.N.P., FAAN, is an affiliate faculty member of the Child Health Advocacy Institute and a neonatal nurse practitioner and researcher. She has worked throughout her career to advance nursing research, education and practice, with a focus on neonatology, infant health and developmental pediatrics. Her research has led to the creation of programs that improve health and developmental outcomes for at-risk and preterm infants.
As an associate professor of nursing and the director of infant research at the George Washington University's Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, Dr. Darcy-Mahoney advances the body of research in infant health and developmental outcomes in high-risk infants with a focus on understanding the early brain and development trajectories in this population. In addition to her work with the institute, she conducts interdisciplinary research through "Talk With Me Baby" a multi-agency initiative using the nursing workforce to educate parents in the importance of talking and engaging with their babies in early infancy. Her research seeks to improve early-childhood outcomes for these infants, most recently through language interventions that improve future literacy and cognitive development.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurses, the 2020 National Academy of Medicine Scholar and a 2017 Josiah Macy Scholar.