Casey Coates Danson grew up on the north shore of Long Island, New York. She attended Lasell College in Boston and graduated with a BFA in Environmental Design from Parsons School of Design in 1975, after which she went to work for the Cambridge-based architect Benjamin Thompson.

In the 1980s, Danson and her then husband, Ted, founded the non-profit advocacy organization, American Oceans Campaign. In 1996, Casey Danson went on to establish Global Possibilities, a non-profit organization working to promote renewable energies in the built environment as an alternative to fossil fuels. In 2007, she produced a documentary film, Who's Got the Power?, which analyzes the connection between fossil fuels and global warming, and promotes the value of renewable energy alternatives.

Danson has designed and lived in solar-powered homes, continuing a professional focus that dates back to the energy crisis of the 1970s, and to her studies in Environmental Design at Parsons. In addition to her interest in promoting renewable energies, Danson has also examined the issue of homelessness, producing a photography book titled Angels Unaware.