Ashley Darcy-Mahoney (NHS ‘06), PhD, NNP, FAAN, is a neonatal nurse practitioner and researcher, who 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 infant health and developmental outcomes for at risk and pre-term infants.

As the director of infant research at George Washington University’s Autism and Neurodevelopmental 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. Her program of research leverages her background in neonatal nursing, behavioral and cognitive assessment, and training in neuroimaging to inform an understanding of multimodal social learning and social perception among high risk infants and toddlers. Her work has been funded by many sources including NIH, Office of Minority Health; HRSA; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; United Way; Macy Foundation) and she has published in high-quality peer-reviewed inter-professional journals.

She has spent the year as the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence, helping to develop federal health policy. Through interprofessional collaboration and engagement, the Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence position provides nursing perspectives to better support public health. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Nurses, is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar Alumna, and has recently been named a Modern Healthcare Rising Star in Nursing.