As a deputy commissioner of public health and special advisor to the governor on healthcare reform, DeJesús will take the lead on efforts to implement health reform in Connecticut. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy sought her for the job after getting to know her while they both served on a Connecticut Health Foundation panel on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health. Before Malloy picked her for his administration, DeJesús spent eight years at the Hispanic Health Council, where she was president and CEO, and served as vice president for strategic alliances at the Connecticut Hospital Association. She also worked as executive vice president of the National Conference for Community and Justice, and program coordinator at St. Vincent's Hospital's rape crisis program in New York. DeJesús, who lives in Bloomfield, co-chaired a task force on tobacco and smoking cessation for the SustiNet Health Partnership board, which designed a proposal for a state public health insurance option. In 2009, she spoke as part of U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd's "Prescriptions for Change" health care listening tour, and described working daily with people who had no health insurance and often worked two or three jobs. She was a member of the Board of Directors of The Connecticut News Project, publisher of The Connecticut Mirror. She resigned after taking the job in the Malloy administration.