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Denise Bellows, Ph.D. is the Senior Director of Insight Region® at the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. In her current role, Denise collaborates with the CFNOVA staff and Board of Directors to select research topics of importance to the Northern Virginia region, which align with CFNOVA’s mission. Denise collects and analyzes data, sharing key findings in reports shared on the Insight Region® website and at community events (e.g., the annual Shape of the Region event). Denise also supports internal data collection and analysis strategies that support CFNOVA’s grantmaking and community leadership operations. Prior to joining CFNOVA, Denise spent 8 years leading research and program evaluation as a contractor for various federal health agencies, state governments, and non-government organizations at Insight Policy Research and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Clients served include: PCORI, CDC, AHRQ, USDA, ASPE, CMS and the State of Maryland for their COVID-19 Contact Tracing program. Denise’s research career took form in 2005, with management and leadership roles in the NIAAA-funded “Peers as Family” grant; a randomized controlled trial of a theory-based, community intervention to reduce harm from alcohol among first-year students at the University of Maryland, College Park. This experience led to 6 years of research in partnership with local communities at the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center (UMD PRC) while pursuing her doctorate. At the UMD PRC, Denise was lead evaluator for their CDC grant, led the pilot research study, and founded a peer education group, training students to support local nonprofits in their outreach activities and events. The group was also trained to present and share local data from Denise’s research with communities and engage in community-based participatory research. Her research on health resources and service supports to vulnerable populations is published in Progress in Community Health Partnerships, The Journal of American College Health, and the Journal of Community Psychology.
Denise serves as Secretary for the Board of Directors at Heart to Hand, Inc. She also teaches children’s formation (Sunday School) and partners with her husband as a transportation specialist, taxiing their son and daughter to flag football, jiujitsu, chess, swimming and gymnastics lessons.
