Dara M. Gray Basley is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and currently serves as a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program Manager at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) in Chicago. Dara provides leadership to a team of MCH High Risk Case Managers and Breastfeeding Counselor for the Westside Healthy Start program, a federally-funded infant mortality initiative. Dara has worked in the MCH field for over 10 years, in which she has case managed high-risk pregnancies, facilitated Centering Pregnancy© group prenatal care, designed/implemented programming, and served as the coordinator for ACCESS’ Women’s Health Quality Committee.

Dara received a bachelor's degree in psychology from The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and earned her master’s in social work from The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (SSA) as a Family Support Fellow.

Outside of the office, Dara serves as a Co-Chair for the Illinois Department of Public Health COINN Pre/Interconception Care Committee and lends her voice to advocate for health equity surrounding trauma-informed care and maternal mortality/morbidity.