Stephanie David is the Director of Early Childhood Policy at Common Ground Health in Rochester, NY, and co-director of its Healthi Kids initiative. With over 15 years of experience in health policy and public health law, she provides expertise and guidance on policy and systems-change opportunities for advancing whole child health in the Finger Lakes region.
Since joining the Healthi Kids team in 2018, Stephanie has led the development of its early childhood work, with a particular focus on infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). She is a board member and officer of the New York State Association for Infant Mental Health and co-chairs its policy committee. She also co-chaired the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health's Policy and Systems Development Workgroup from 2022-2024 and was a primary contributing author to its 2023 report on addressing preschool suspension and expulsion through an IECMH-informed lens. In 2024 she was appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul to New York State's Early Childhood Advisory Council and is a member of its policy committee.
Prior to joining Common Ground Health, Stephanie served on the faculty of George Washington University's School of Public Health in its Department of Health Policy, where she provided public health law and policy expertise for many grant-funded projects and government contracts on issues including food safety, obesity, youth tobacco access, infectious disease surveillance and response, school vaccination mandates, and autism. She also taught undergraduate Introduction to Public Health and Health Services and several graduate courses, including Public Health Law, and Law, Medicine, and Ethics. She continues to teach these graduate courses as part-time faculty in GW's online MPH program, and will serve as adjunct faculty for the University of Rochester's undergraduate Public Health Law and Policy course in spring 2025.
Originally from Batavia, NY, Stephanie earned her law degree from the Washington and Lee School of Law, her master’s degree in public health from George Washington University, and her bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University. She also holds an Endorsement as an Infant Family Associate in Infant Mental Health. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys playing violin, gardening, bird-watching and spending time with her husband and two teenage daughters.
