Josie Danini Cortez, M.A.

Josie Danini Cortez, M.A., is a veteran researcher and senior education associate at IDRA. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received her master’s degree in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University. At IDRA, she directed IDRA’s Division of Research and Evaluation for eight years, managing all of the organization’s research and evaluation activities, international to national, state to local in scope. She has helped create research-based and scientifically-based programs and products. A medical anthropologist by training, Cortez has been an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio for more than 24 years. She researches and advises on cross-cultural medical ethics, specializing in death and dying and has served as co-investigator of several research studies in the area of cardiovascular disease. She is proficient in English and Spanish.