Danielle N. Butin

Danielle N. Butin, MPH, OTR, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Afya Foundation, a medical supply recovery organization in New York. Since its inception in late 2007, Afya has shipped more than 100 40-foot containers packed with recovered humanitarian and medical supplies to Haiti and African nations. Ms. Butin is a fi rm believer in asking recipient hospitals and organizations abroad for their “wish list,” and Afya attempts to match as many items as possible with those available for donation in the New York metropolitan area.

Ms. Butin received her M.S. in Public Health with a specialization in Geriatrics and Gerontology at Columbia University and her B.S. in Occupational Therapy from New York University. Prior to creating Afya, she was the Director of Health Services for the East Region of Senior and Retiree Services for United Health Care. In this role, she provided health service leadership for the East Region of the Medicare line of business, which served approximately 300,000 Medicare members. Ms. Butin also served as the Manager of the Health Promotion and Wellness Department at Oxford Health Plans, where she developed a number of innovative health screening, self-management, care management and wellness programs. She has received national recognition and awards for her leadership in the development of health education programs and materials, and served as a board member for the National HMO Workgroup on Care Management for eight years. Ms. Butin continues to serve on the advisory board for Practice Change Fellows, a grant sponsored mentoring program to develop national leaders in geriatric care.

Ms. Butin has received numerous honors and recognition for her work, including: the Greater New York Hospital Association, for her organization’s post-earthquake relief eff orts in Haiti; the Eli Lilly Welcome Back Award, for Afya’s special pre-vocational programs at the warehouse, for at-risk populations; the Distinguished Alumni Award from Scarsdale High School and the Lamed Vavnik Award from J-Teen Leadership in New York.

Ms. Butin’s story has been sought after and covered in the October 2010 issue of MORE Magazine and the March 2011 issue of Family Circle. In 2011, she was featured in the MORE Magazine’s syndicated television show, “Reinvention and Second Acts.” In October 2012, Ms. Butin was featured on the Katie Couric Show, and in 2013, Better TV, a syndicated show on the Hallmark channel, featured her work. Ms. Butin’s accomplishments at Afya have been covered twice in the New York Times, in addition to the Washington Post. She is an invited lecturer at college campuses across the country and an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University.