Peggy Toy, MA, is the former director of Health DATA (Data. Advocacy. Training. Assistance.), a key public service program of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Health DATA's mission is to build community capacity to access and use health data in policy and program development.
She has led several projects that provide community-based training and technical assistance using data to advocate for improved access to care and healthy environments for underserved populations in California.
Toy has overseen the AskCHIS and AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition community workshops, assisting a wide range of community representatives statewide to access and use data from the California Health Interview Survey.
She has produced a library of training and technical assistance articles, video tutorials, and curricula on data knowledge and skills development for community audiences available online on the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research website. The library also includes extensive data training and technical assistance materials in Spanish.
Toy directed community-academic and multi-sector collaborations addressing health disparities. Recent projects include the City of Los Angeles Smokefree Multi-Unit Housing Evaluation for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tobacco Control Program. UCLA-Smokefree Air For Everyone (UCLA-SAFE), a CDC-REACH program to increase access to smoke-free apartments and smoking cessation services in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The project received recognition by the National Public Health Information Coalition Berreth Award for Excellence in Public Health Communications. The Healthy Aging Partnerships in Prevention Initiative (HAPPI), to increase the use of clinical preventive services (CPS) use by low-income African-American and Latino adults age 50 and older sponsored by the US DHHS Office and the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).
She has co-authored publications on community data capacity development, smoke-free housing and health disparities, and healthy aging and cancer prevention. Prior work included directing regional and national capacity-building programs for the National Cancer Institute, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the California and Los Angeles County departments of public health.
Toy earned her master of arts degree in communication management from the USC Annenberg School of Communication, focusing on public health policy.
