Ilana manages the development and implementation of educational resources and conducts research on a range of topics such as language and communication access, physical accessibility, disability competency, maternal mortality, and COVID-19. Ilana specializes in work that falls at the intersection of health education and health communication. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist and also holds a certification in the fundamentals of focus group moderating.

Ilana is currently training lead for a project in support of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) Office of Minority Health. She has been an integral team member on two separate five-year projects for this client. Over the last 10+ years, she has led the development of multiple issue briefs on topics such as data sources to improve health care for people with disabilities, increasing the physical accessibility of health care facilities, how providers meet patient language needs, and understanding communication and language needs of Medicare beneficiaries. Ilana also led the development of multiple educational resources for providers, focused on improving access to care for people with disabilities. Additionally, as training lead for the project, Ilana worked with the CMS Medicare Learning Network to develop web-based trainings on language access plans and modernizing health care to improve physical accessibility.

Prior to joining NORC, Ilana also developed educational programs, trainings, and resources for health care providers. For three years, she worked in support of the HHS Office of Minority Health, developing cultural competency continuing education programs grounded in the National CLAS Standards. Before that, she worked as a Fellow at the CDC in the Division of Tuberculosis Prevention and Elimination (DTBE), developing educational guides focused on promoting cultural competency in tuberculosis programs for refugee and immigrant populations.