Danielle is a 4th-year General Surgery resident at UC San Diego, having paused clinical residency in order to serve in her current role as UCSF/TRISH Space Health Innovation Fellow. Prior to entering medicine, she served as a Captain in the US Air Force, where she flew the T-34 and T-38C; while on active duty, she also served as a defender on the All-Air Force Women’s Soccer Team, assisted with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a part of a Special Operations helicopter unit, and was sent to Florence, Italy as a part of the Language and Area Studies Immersion Program, where she solidified fluency in Italian.

Danielle holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, where she served as Co-President of the Echols Scholar Council; she graduated Summa Cum Laude with concurrent majors in Bioethics and Italian, and was later inducted into the Raven Society, the University’s highest academic honor. Following her active duty military service, she returned to the University of Virginia to earn her MD degree. She has been involved in extensive Global Health work, including Trauma/Burn Surgery research, education, and outreach programs in East Africa and Latin America. She has trained and made contributions in the areas of Disaster Relief, Mass Casualty Incident Management, Wilderness Medicine, and Trauma/Emergency Response in resource-limited settings, among others.

Alongside her role as Space Health Innovation Fellow, Danielle works as an instructor pilot at a local flight school; in her free time, she enjoys climbing and distance running.