Ashley Darcy-Mahoney

Ashley Darcey-Mahoney headshot

Ashley Darcy-Mahoney

Ph.D., NNP, FAAN

Dir. of Infant Research, Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute; Chair, Community of Policy, Populations and Systems

Professor (Tenured)


Department: Community of Policy, Populations and Systems

Contact:

Office Phone: 202-994-5397
1919 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 500, 532 Washington DC 20006

Ashley Darcy-Mahoney a neonatal nurse practitioner and researcher, has worked throughout her career to advance nursing research, education and practice, with a focus on neonatology, infant health and developmental pediatrics. Her research has led to the creation of programs that improve health and developmental outcomes for at-risk and preterm infants.

As a tenured associate professor of nursing and the director of infant research at George Washington University’s Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, Dr. Darcy-Mahoney advances the body of research in infant health and developmental outcomes in high-risk infants with a focus on understanding the early brain and development trajectories in this population. In addition to her work with the institute, she conducts interdisciplinary research through “Talk With Me Baby” a multi-agency initiative using the nursing workforce to educate parents in the importance of talking and engaging with their babies in early infancy. Her research seeks to improve early-childhood outcomes for these infants, most recently through language interventions that improve future literacy and cognitive development.

Dr. Darcy-Mahoney is a Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Nurse Faculty Scholar and with her most recent grant from the RWJ Foundation, she is pursuing outcomes research in preterm infants by comparing developmental trajectories of children raised in a bilingual environment against those raised in a monolingual environment.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurses, a 2017 Josiah Macy Scholar, was named among the Top 25 Pediatric Nursing Professors by nursepractitionerschools.com and has earned numerous awards, including the 2014 March of Dimes Nurse of the Year, Florida Association of Neonatal Nurses President’s Award and the Lillian Sholtis Brunner Award for Innovation from her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.


  • Josiah Macy Scholar (2017)
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (2015)
  • Lillian Sholtis Brunner Award for Innovation - University of Pennsylvania (2015)
  • Top 25 Pediatric Nursing Professors, as named by nursepractitionerschools.com (2014)
  • March of Dimes Nurse of the Year (2013)
  • President’s Award - Florida Association of Neonatal Nurses (2013)
  • Hasegawa, Y., Ryherd, E., Ryan, C. S., & Darcy-Mahoney, A. (2020). Examining the Utility of Perceptual Noise Categorization in Pediatric and Neonatal Hospital Units. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal. 
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E.; Minter, B., Higgins, M., Guo, Y., & Williams, B. , Head, L., Burch, K. (In Press). Probability of an Autism Diagnosis by Gestational Age. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews
  • Darcy-Mahoney, A. Minter, Higgins, Guo, Y., Head, L and Hirst, J. (In Press). Maternal and neonatal birth factors affecting the age of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews
  • Parker, L., Darcy-Mahoney, A., Hoffman, J. (In Press). Barriers to Initiation of Breast Milk Expression Following Delivery of Very Low Birth Weight Infants. Journal of Obstetric Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nurses
  • Darcy Mahoney, AE, Head, L.M., Hallowell, S., Weldon, A., Stapel-Wax, J., B. (In press). Leveraging the skills of nurses and the power of Language Nutrition™ Advances in Neonatal Care
  • Darcy Mahoney, A. &  Baralt, M., Darcy Mahoney, A.E. (2016). Bilingualism and Executive Inhibitory Control in 4- and 5-Year-Old Preterm Born Children: A Pilot Study. Advances in Neonatal Care 16 (3) pp E3-E12
  • J.R. Weber, E.E. Ryherd, A. Darcy Mahoney, A.,  M. Rolfes, H. Cooper, and B. Cherven. (2016). Evaluating Hospital Quiet Time from Engineering, Medical, and Nursing Perspectives, contributed paper presented at Spring 2016 Acoustical Society of America Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT. 
  • Head, L.M., Baralt, M., Darcy Mahoney, A.E. (2015). Bilingualism as a potential strategy to improve neurodevelopment in preterm infants: a review. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, S089-5245 (14): 00281000288. doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2014.08.015. 
  • Zhang, C.; Holditch-Davis, D., Darcy-Mahoney, A. (2014). In Utero, Neonatal, and Family Social factors Predicting Poor School Outcome of Low Birth Weight Survivors, Advances in Neonatal Care 15(1): 38-47.  doi: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000133. PMID: 25626981
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E., Pinto-Martin, J., Hanlon, A. (2014). Home environment, brain injury, and school performance in low birth weight survivors. Maternal Child Nursing 39(1):18-25. doi: 10.1097/01.NMC.0000437535.99514.95
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E., Jain, L. (2013). Respiratory Disorders in Moderately Preterm, Late Pre term, and Early Term Infants. Journal of Perinatology 40(4):665-678
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E. Minter, B., Burch, K., Stapel-Wax, J. (2013). Autism Spectrum Disorders and Prematurity: A review across gestational age subgroups. Advances in Nursing Care, 13(4):247-251.
  • Zhang, C., Darcy Mahoney, A.E. & Pinto-Martin, J. (2013). Perinatal brain injury, visual motor function, and poor school outcome of regional low birth weight survivors at age nine. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 15-16: 2225-2232. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04328  
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E. & Pinto-Martin, J. (2012). State of the Science: Association Between Perinatal Brain Injury and School Performance in Very-Low-Birthweight infants. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 12(1): 33-39. PII: S1527-3369(11)00190-5
  • Darcy Mahoney, A.E., Hancock, L., Curley, M., Iorianni, A. (2012). Using High-Fidelity Simulation to Bridge Clinical and Classroom Learning in Undergraduate Pediatric Nursing, Nurse Education Today.  PMID: 22341995
  • The University of Pennsylvania – PhD in Nursing (2010)
  • The University of Pennsylvania – Master of Science in Nursing in the field of Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (2008)
  • Georgetown University – Bachelor of Science in Nursing (2006)
    • Certificate in International Health
  • Autism
  • Childhood Developmental
  • Infant Health
  • Neonatal
  • Pediatrics
  • Focus
  • Analytical
  • Achiever
  • Learner
  • Competition