Dina Cannistraci
New Rochelle / New York - Director of Global Operations(she/her)
Dina Cannistraci is a nonprofit executive and activist committed to social justice who is passionate about positively impacting health outcomes in marginalized communities. Dina has diverse experience in non-profit, government, education, and legal settings.
Dina practiced law for over a decade, and considers her service as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General of Public Advocacy at the New York State Attorney General’s Office the highlight of her legal career. There she helped lead the Attorney General’s social and economic justice bureaus. Dina also served as a Legal Consultant for Maryland Nonprofits, where she supported organizations to achieve and maintain tax exemption and federal and state legal compliance, and counseled nonprofits on strategic planning, nonprofit governance and best practices.
Dina transitioned from law into the nonprofit world, and has deep and diverse nonprofit experience including development, programs, operations and systems. She is a collaborative thinker with strategic vision and the demonstrated skill in developing systems to support vision.
Dina has committed her nonprofit career and long-time advocacy efforts to public health issues, including the childhood obesity epidemic, food security and food allergies. She worked for over a decade at FAN4Kids to address the twin epidemics of childhood obesity and food insecurity through educational programs by providing students and parents education and resources to increase access and remove barriers to healthy living, and to empower program participants to use and combine their voices to strengthen advocacy and messaging to their elected officials about their most urgent health concerns.
As the lead of Food Security and Nutrition programming at the Port Chester Carver Center, Dina re-launched and developed, staffed and created systems to support programming, including a client-choice food pantry, a weekly no-cost community meal, and the provision of no-cost meals to approximately 1,000 students to address post-pandemic increases in food insecurity. Dina brought a holistic approach to programs with an increased focus on the social determinants of health and people-centered programming to decrease stigma.
Dina has been a dedicated advocate for the 32 million Americans living with food allergies for nearly two decades. Her efforts include activism and advocacy aimed to increase safety and improve the quality of life for food allergic individuals through outreach, education, policies and legislation in multiple settings on a local and national level. She is also a Founding Board Member of Spreading Awareness of Food Allergies in Educational Settings (SAFE).
Dina works with intention to bring an anti-racist lens to her career, volunteer, community, and personal interactions. She completed the Undoing Racism Training from the People’s Institute of Survival and Beyond, has a certificate in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace, and is a member of a community group – New Rochelle Against Racism – that identifies and dismantles institutional racism in the community.
Joining PAC as the Global Director of Operations, Dina will bring her experience and commitment to public health and social justice in addition to her leadership and background in nonprofit best practices, governance, operations, systems building, and strategic thinking to bring PAC’s internal systems and structures to the next level to support and steer PAC in this exciting stage of organizational and programmatic growth.
Dina received her JD from George Washington Law School and she graduated cum laude from Boston University with a BA in Political Science.
