Zhandra Levesque, EDC director of maternal and child health, is a public health expert and highly experienced program leader with over 15 years of experience managing large-scale federal, state, and philanthropic initiatives to improve outcomes for pregnant women, infants, children, and families. Her content expertise includes maternal and child health, home visiting, and comprehensive early childhood systems. She specializes in continuous quality improvement (CQI), systems thinking, process consultation, active implementation, operational leadership, and organizational development.

Levesque leads EDC’s Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) and oversees EDC’s home visiting initiatives. She facilitates collaborative work to use CQI to transform maternal and child health outcomes. She leverages adult learning principles to support the work of teams and engages multi-sector partners in advancing shared goals to enhance the health and well-being of children and families. She also serves as Technical Monitor for federal home visiting initiatives, collaborating with federal agencies and national partners to ensure consistency and impact across technical assistance systems.

At the state level, Levesque directs the Massachusetts Maternal Health Innovation initiative and Community Birth Strategy, which supports the execution of coordinated care strategies, workforce infrastructure, and sustainable public health implementation models. Before joining EDC, she led maternal and child health initiatives at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, including Infant Mortality and Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems CoIINs.

Levesque holds a DrPH in Policy, Leadership, and Management in Maternal and Child Health and an MPH in Health Policy and Management from the Boston University School of Public Health. She is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish and English.