CHILDTRENDS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist II
- Research Scientist II, Bethesda
- Research Scientist in the Child Welfare Research Area at Child Trends
Alaina Flannigan, PhD, is a research scientist in the child welfare research area at Child Trends. Currently, her projects at Child Trends include improving post-adoption services for adoptees and their families, establishing high quality supportive housing vouchers and services for transition-age foster youth who are at risk of homelessness, and enhancing recruitment efforts for foster, resource, and adoptive homes. Her projects span the country and include work in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Nebraska.
Prior to joining Child Trends, Dr. Flannigan served as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In this role, she was sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) and placed with the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, where she focused on housing, tax, health, and social safety net policy to ensure that America's families can lead healthy, productive lives and meaningfully contribute to the growth of the economy.
Dr. Flannigan received her PhD in Educational Psychology and MA in Program Evaluation from the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on human development, culture, and learning science. She has a background in applied statistical modeling and qualitative methods as well as project management experience. Her research focuses on cultivating resilience for older youth in foster care, particularly through establishing relationships with supportive adults. A central philosophy to Dr. Flannigan's research and work is the use of strengths-based approaches that focus on identifying areas of success and resilience for an individual-as opposed to taking a deficit view that centers on an individual's challenges and shortcomings.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research and Communications Specialist II
- Senior Research and Communications Specialist II, Bethesda
- Senior Research Communications Specialist
Alana Ward joined Child Trends in July 2014 and serves as senior research communications specialist. As project director of the HHS Office of Adolescent Health's (OAH) website and communications contract, Alana is responsible for project management, content development for the OAH website, communications outreach to grantees and OAH partners, and social media coordination. Alana also provides strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and policy communications expertise on a range of Child Trends projects involving topics such as teen pregnancy prevention, Hispanic children and youth, and child welfare.
Previously, Alana was a senior program officer at Partnership for Prevention, where she served as the co-director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health. In addition to leading strategic planning and stakeholder outreach, she managed branding and communications activities for the coalition. Alana has also served as a Teach for America corps member in the Bronx in New York City. She holds a master of public policy degree from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and a master of science in teaching degree from Pace University. She received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Job Titles:
- Member / Vice President, Office of Social Impact & Inclusion and Executive Director, Panasonic Foundation
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Analyst
- Senior Research Analyst With the Education Team at Child Trends
- Senior Research Analyst, Bethesda
Alexander Gabriel is a senior research analyst with the education team at Child Trends. He is experienced in quantitative and qualitative methodology and has focused on equity and civil rights issues in schools. Alexander hold a master's degree in Education Policy from the University of Maryland, where his thesis assessed the impact of federal education policy change on English Language Learners (ELLs). He has piloted experimental methodology and worked in a variety of education roles, including teaching ELLs in public schools, implementing diversity and inclusion accountability plans, and researching federal, state, and institutional education policy issues. His primary research interests include school segregation, integration, and intergroup attitudes.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- Research Analyst, Minneapolis, MN
Alexandra Verhoye is a research analyst in the early childhood development area in the Minnesota office. She is a doctoral candidate pursuing a PhD in evaluation studies at the University of Minnesota. Alex received a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington and completed her capstone thesis project on the organizational structure of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) located in Minneapolis, MN. Alex has also received a Master's in teacher education from the University of St. Thomas, where she examined both the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs in U.S. K-6 public schools, and the effects of collaborative learning on elementary school students' cognitive development. Alex comes to Child Trends with experience in policy analysis and both quantitative and qualitative research. She has worked on evaluation and research projects in a variety of settings, including the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, TerraLuna Collaborative, the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan School District, and the University of Minnesota. Alex is particularly interested in supporting programs and initiatives aimed at fostering school mental health, promoting healthy social and emotional development, and improving access to high-quality early child car e.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- Research Analyst, Bethesda
Alexandria Wilkins is a research analyst in the child welfare program area. She brings two years of experience in quantitative and qualitative analysis and specializes in supporting the evaluations of youth in foster care. Alexandria is interested in neighborhood change, specifically gentrification, and its impact on public schools and other systems that interact with young children.
Prior to joining Child Trends, Alexandria worked at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and studied the outcomes of infants entering the foster care system. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago where she studied human rights and public policy studies with a specialization in urban education. While pursuing her degree, Alexandria volunteered with a local after-school arts program and held a human rights summer fellowship where she helped create summer school curriculums in Brooklyn, New York.
Job Titles:
- HR Coordinator
- HR Coordinator / Education & Certification
Alicia is the HR coordinator at Child Trends. In this capacity, she helps assist with the company's talent and recruiting efforts. Prior to joining Child Trends, Alicia spent time in multiple HR roles with an emphasis on recruitment. She was a recruiting coordinator at a large international contact center, and recruited for companies such as Verizon Wireless. Most recently, she worked in the financial auditing department for American Airlines. She played an integral role in federal regulatory compliance and in budgeting for the company's largest station. While in this role she was a liaison for UNICEF and helped coordinate fundraising efforts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Communication Science
- Senior Director of Communication Science, Bethesda
Alicia Torres, PhD, serves as senior director of communication science and Hispanic outreach at Child Trends. Dr. Torres brings extensive experience developing and executing research-based strategic communication programs and evaluations, as well as managing large-scale programs and grant implementation. She has more than 15 years of experience in the management of strategic, evidenced-based communication research and planning for scientific associations. Dr. Torres is an expert in the field of public understanding of science and communication science research aimed at improving the effectiveness of STEM learning. At Child Trends, she is expanding the area of communication science research as it applies to child development. She currently serves as the principal investigator for a large National Science Foundation-funded project, the Child Trends News Service. The Child Trends News Service aims to expand access to child development research to hard-to-reach audiences by building a TV news service in partnership with professional news syndicators that reaches several million viewers with eight monthly news reports in both English and Spanish. Dr. Torres also leads research on practices that improve the effectiveness of processes and messaging between researchers, the news media, and parents.
Prior to her time at Child Trends, Dr. Torres served as director of communications and outreach for the American Educational Research Association (AERA), senior director for communications and policy at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), and director of media and government relations at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Previously, Dr. Torres served as the chief communications officer for the American Bar Association. She was also a public policy and communications consultant and strategist for a variety of nonprofit organizations, including several that focused on issues of concern to U.S. Latino communities. She earned her BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Texas-Austin, where her early training was in mathematics and her doctoral work focused on strategic communications and mass media studies. Dr. Torres is fluent in Spanish and has strong competency in French.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Analyst
- Senior Research Analyst, Bethesda
Alison McClay is a senior research analyst within the youth development program area of Child Trends. She attributes her research interests in positive youth development, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, racial and health equity, and systems transformation to her educational and early career experiences as a middle school math teacher, volunteer community health and sexual violence prevention educator, college resident assistant, and out-of-school time practitioner. Alison is experienced in conducting and disseminating mixed-methods research, training and technical assistance, and project management. Her current work includes continuous quality improvement and evaluation of a goal-setting sexual health promotion program, a mixed-method study to assess the role of MIECHV-funded local program implementation to advance health equity in response to COVID-19, and project management for the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families.
Alison holds a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where her master's thesis used Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data to analyze the association between school-based sex education and contraceptive use among U.S. adolescents. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Appalachian State University. Prior to joining Child Trends, Alison held research positions at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, the Vermont Department of Health, and the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Analyst
- Senior Research Analyst in the Child Welfare Research Area at Child Trends
- Senior Research Analyst, Bethesda
Allison R. Hebert, MS, is a senior research analyst in the child welfare research area at Child Trends. Ms. Hebert's research interests include court-based interventions, specialized treatment courts, child abuse and neglect prevention, and crossover between the juvenile justice system and child welfare system. Allison holds a BA in sociology and criminology from Drury University and a MS in justice, law, and criminology from American University. In her current role, she provides quantitative and qualitative data analysis and project management support across a variety of projects. Overall, Allison is interested in the practical translation of research, providing technical assistance to various audiences, and making research more accessible to those who can most benefit from it.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- Research Analyst in the Child Welfare Program Area at Child Trends
- Research Analyst, Bethesda
Alyssa Liehr is a research analyst in the child welfare program area at Child Trends. Alyssa's interests include the experiences of older youth in foster care, youth missing from care, the screening and training of foster parents, and prevention initiatives.
Prior to joining Child Trends, Alyssa performed program management and evaluation duties at the Newcomb Institute within Tulane University, while pursuing an MPA/MSW. She also received a BS in Neuroscience and Public Health with a childhood trauma focus from Tulane University. During this time, she served as a research consultant for a small, child protection focused, non-profit and has been very active in child welfare policy analysis and advocacy efforts relating to the experiences of older youth in foster care. Alyssa is passionate about evidence-based policy facilitating a more equitable and trauma-informed child welfare system.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist II
- Research Scientist II, Bethesda
Amy Blasberg, MPP, is a research scientist in the early childhood development research area. Ms. Blasberg's current research focuses on program evaluation in early care and education contexts, including public schools, child care centers, and family child care settings. She has a particular interest in understanding quality in home-based child care, including both regulated and license-exempt settings. She currently serves as the project director of an experimental evaluation of Rhode Island's State Pre-K program to understand the impact of State Pre-K on children who do and do not attend. She also leads the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation-sponsored Home-Based Child Care Working Group, a group of researchers that convenes quarterly to discuss research in home-based child care settings.
Ms. Blasberg is familiar with a wide range of research methods, including survey development, study and sample design, primary data collection, and secondary data analysis. She has extensive experience overseeing large-scale primary data collection efforts, including selecting appropriate measures, hiring and supervising a team of 15-20 data collectors, and coordinating and leading trainings on assessment batteries and classroom observational measures. She has expertise with quantitative analysis, including descriptive analyses and mediation and moderation models. She is familiar with complex methods, such as propensity score matching, survival analysis, fixed effects, regression discontinuity design, and partially-nested randomized control trials.
Ms. Blasberg's past research has focused on a range of early care and education topics, including surveying low-income parents about their child care decision-making process and conducting validation studies of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) in Rhode Island and Georgia. She is currently certified as a reliable Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K observer and trainer and a reliable CLASS Toddler observer and trainer.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist II
- Research Scientist II, Scottsdale, Arizona
Amy McKlindon works in the child welfare program area at Child Trends and is experienced in program evaluation, including both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Amy focuses on designing and implementing qualitative data collection and analysis strategies to evaluate system-level improvements. Her primary focus is on systems serving transition-age foster youth, and her past research includes program evaluations of Wendy's Wonderful Kids and Family Finding. She has also conducted research on father involvement and child support.
Amy's quantitative work includes development and analysis of program fidelity measures. In terms of qualitative work, she has extensive experience facilitating semi-structured interviews and focus groups. A licensed master of social work, Amy has nine years of experience working on child welfare and vulnerable adult issues, including system reform, policy development, advocacy, and direct practice.
Job Titles:
- Assistant in the Early Childhood Area at Child Trends
- Senior Policy Assistant
- Senior Policy Assistant, Bethesda
Analisa Pines is a senior policy assistant in the early childhood area at Child Trends. She graduated with her BA in May of 2021 from the University of Notre Dame with a major in American studies and minors in education and public service. During her years as an undergraduate, Analisa worked with students in preschool and middle school at the Robinson Community Learning Center as a volunteer and tutor. She also conducted independent research through her senior thesis, titled "‘Lies Your Textbook Told You': American History Textbooks' Portrayal of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, 1880s-2000s." Outside of school, she has completed internships at various nonprofits including Girls on the Run (South Bend, IN) and Rise Up (Oakland, CA) where she honed her research skills pertaining to girls and education. Analisa's areas of interest in research include access to high-quality early childhood education, federal and state education policy, and racial equity.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist II
- Research Scientist II, Chapel Hill, NC
Andra Wilkinson, PhD, MSPH, is a research scientist II dedicated to improving behavioral, adolescent, and maternal and child health. Dr. Wilkinson brings a strong skill set in quantitative analysis and data visualization to her work, as well as experience in healthcare from the provider, insurer, and public health perspectives. Her recent work includes creating an interactive map of the maternal and child health system in a county relative to population demographics, creating interactive data visualizations of youth behavioral health needs by state, leading analysis of social media data on opioids, a difference-in-difference analysis of Medicaid reimbursements for school-based health services, a longitudinal multilevel analyses of the relationship between mental health and substance use among youth, and a cost-effectiveness analysis of postpartum depression screening. Her data visualizations of opioid state policy were in the Washington Post and led to her being invited to the Research-to-Policy Collaboration. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist, Bethesda
Andrea Vazzano, MPH, is a research scientist in the reproductive health and family formation program area. She has over ten years of experience in public health research and programming with expertise in qualitative research and evaluation as well as targeted research dissemination. At Child Trends, Andrea's work focuses on coparenting and healthy relationships, maternal and child health, and adolescent reproductive health. She has successfully led qualitative data collection and analysis for multiple projects, including an Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE)-funded study exploring how fatherhood programs support healthy relationships and an Office of Population Affairs (OPA) study on innovative strategies in family planning service delivery for Title X providers. She currently oversees a mixed-methods evaluation of a CDC-funded project that aims to increase the capacity of State Education Agencies to support HIV/STD and pregnancy reduction among adolescents. Andrea received a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Before coming to Child Trends, she worked in international development, supporting the design and evaluation of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded family planning and HIV programming initiatives. She is passionate about conducting high-quality research with an eye towards practice, and has authored a range of accessible briefs, case studies, and resources for public health programs.
Andrew Potach is a proposal coordinator and is responsible for leading the proposal preparation and submission process. In addition, he collaborates with research, communications, contracts, and finance staff to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of proposals from kickoff to submission. This includes developing work plans and timelines for research staff, leading kickoff meetings to discuss internal deadlines, and reviewing proposal materials to ensure compliance and accuracy. He also supports the pre-proposal process by tracking interest in opportunities and supporting bid meetings. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Minnesota, and has volunteered with local nonprofit organizations, including Literacy Minnesota and The Minnesota state-level contest of the National History Day Competition. Prior to joining Child Trends, Andrew served as a global forwarding coordinator at a Minnesota-based logistics company.
Angela Rojas works in the Youth Development research area. Before joining Child Trends, Angela worked extensively in the area of women's health and contributed to research at the Pan American Health Organization to improve implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. For her Master's thesis at The George Washington University, she evaluated the Empowering Latino Youth Program (ELYP), a teen pregnancy prevention program for Latino high school students. She designed survey questions for the ELYP, performed quantitative research analyses, and coordinated and evaluated the use of social media by Latino teens enrolled in ELYP in Washington, DC high schools. Her main research interests include reproductive health; after school programs; teen pregnancy, particularly in the Latino community; as well as program development and evaluation.
Job Titles:
- Senior Accounting Manager
- Senior Accounting Manager / Education & Certification
Angele Akitani has over 14 years of professional experience in accounting and finance. She has worked with government contracting and for nonprofit organizations, and she specializes in GL accounting and financial statement analysis.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Program Area Director, Reproductive Health and Family Formation
- Deputy Program Area Director, Reproductive Health and Family Formation, Bethesda
- Project Director for the HHS Office of Adolescent Health
April Wilson, PhD, is a developmental researcher who focuses on identifying the antecedents of stable and healthy family relationships. In addition to leading projects, Dr. Wilson has been invited to present at federal and state agencies, research conferences, and practitioner and advocacy groups convenings. She also has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions about linking research and data to practice and policies that affect children and families. Dr. Wilson's research has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family and as reports for legislators, various agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Institute of Education Sciences, and state agencies. She also contributed to articles in the Dallas Morning News and the San Antonio Express News.
Currently, Dr. Wilson serves as the project director for the HHS Office of Adolescent Health's (OAH) website and communications contract. She is responsible for project management, content development for the OAH website, outreach to grantees and OAH partners, and social media coordination. Dr. Wilson also serves as the task lead on the Home Visiting Research and Platform Development project. In that role, she helps lead the nationwide efforts to develop guidelines for research and evaluation methods using breakthrough impact principles for researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in the field to effectively address the specific needs of program participants. Furthermore, Dr. Wilson is the principal investigator for a study of a dual generation program, AVANCE, where she reviews and analyzes program data. She also provides feedback on implementation and outcome performance and methods to more effectively use data for continuous improvement on this project. Her other projects focus on topics such as supporting the prevention of intimate partner violence through work with fathers; enhancing relationship education programs that serve vulnerable youth, including youth in foster care; family strengthening after paternal incarceration; and teen pregnancy prevention. She has also led training and technical assistant efforts on several projects, including for the Pregnancy Assistance Fund grantees.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist II
Asari Offiong, PhD, MPH is a research scientist II within the reproductive health and family formation research area. As an adolescent health researcher, she takes an assets-based, youth-centered approach to addressing issues pertinent to young people. She has nearly a decade of experience in leading youth development programs and conducting mixed methods, community-based research in various metropolitan areas across the U.S. with non-profits, school districts and government agencies. Furthermore, she has experience designing, implementing, and managing culturally relevant programs related to substance use prevention and reproductive health for youth in inner-city settings.
At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), she worked closely with the Center for Adolescent Health on community-engaged research projects focused on reengaging opportunity youth, preventing early substance use and promoting positive sexual and reproductive health. She recently completed her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship at JHSPH. Her dissertation focused on using a reproductive justice lens to understand the social context of how U.S. adolescents conceptualize their pregnancy intentions and decision-making. This work also led to a focus on expecting and parenting adolescents, and how best to support their holistic wellbeing.
Prior to Johns Hopkins, Asari's practice-based work began at the Children's Aid Society where she managed a one-million-dollar state grant and oversaw youth programming for over 2,000 youth in New York City. She has implemented and trained staff on numerous evidence-based curricula in both school and community settings, including Botvin's Life Skills Training and Strengthening Families. Based on connections to communities, she has served as a consultant in various capacities, providing topical expertise on youth-centered approaches, evidence-based programming, and university-community partnerships. Her publications in leading journals, awards, and affiliations with professional organizations are evidence of her expertise and commitment to supporting health equity for youth, particularly those in inner-city areas. Asari also holds an MPH from Boston University and B.S in brain, behavior and cognitive science from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist, Minneapolis, MN
Ashley Hirilall works in the Early Childhood Development research area. As an undergraduate, she examined the processes behind the child welfare system in Minnesota's Hennepin County with Dr. Canan Karatekin. Ashley is becoming increasingly interested in public policy, and continues to research the cultural sensitivities of services and interventions offered in cases of child maltreatment. In future work, Ashley hopes to become more involved in policy by pursuing a master's degree while also learning from her experiences at Child Trends.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
- Senior Research Assistant in the Early Childhood Program Area at Child Trends
- Senior Research Assistant, Bethesda
Astha Patel is a senior research assistant in the early childhood program area at Child Trends. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a dual degree in Psychology and Gender & Women's Studies. During her undergraduate years, Astha worked in Dr. Christia Brown's lab, Social Inequality in Development Research Group, where she helped with recruitment, literature reviews, data collection, coding qualitative data, and data analysis. During her senior year, she conceptualized and facilitated an independent project titled Reducing Bias Against Muslims Through Media Framing: An Integrated Threat Theory Analysis. Prior to joining Child Trends, she worked with University of Michigan Medicine on a longitudinal study designed to reduce risky drinking and violent behavior among adolescents. She also served as a health coach on this study, conducting motivational interviewing interventions with participants. Broadly, Astha is interested in investigating racial and economic disparities in child care and development.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- Research Analyst, Minneapolis, MN
Audrey Franchett works in the early childhood development area in the Minnesota office. As an undergraduate at Eckerd College, Audrey designed and conducted research on the relationship between on-campus pet ownership and students' perceived well-being. She also worked as an administrative assistant, tutor, and teacher's assistant for multiple research methods courses. During her senior year, Audrey completed an internship at St. Anthony's Hospital Outpatient Center, where she observed patient/provider interactions and conducted treatment-related literature reviews. Prior to joining Child Trends, she spent a year as a semi-professional sailor training and competing in regattas around the United States and Europe. Audrey is passionate about facilitating healthy social and emotional learning and the accessibility of high-quality, affordable education for young children.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
- Senior Research Scientist, Bethesda
Berenice Rushovich works in the Child Welfare research area. She has experience in program evaluation, qualitative and quantitative research methods. Berenice's research has focused on initiatives to enhance placement stability, permanency and well-being for youth in foster care. She has looked at both the process of implementation and the impact of initiatives at the individual and systems level.
Her work has also focused on developing an evidence base for initiatives and helping agencies build their implementation and evaluation capacity. Previously she worked at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Ruth Young Center where she was part of the evaluation team for a Family Connections combination grant, a National Resource Center grant and several community based evaluation projects.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist, Bethesda
Bonnie Solomon, PhD, is a research scientist on the Child Trends education team and collaborates with colleagues in early childhood. Dr. Solomon is passionate about improving academic and behavioral outcomes for low-income youth and youth of color through high quality research to inform education and early childhood policies and practices. For the past fifteen years, she has conducted school-based research across the developmental spectrum, from preschools to postsecondary institutions, focusing on school climate, discipline policies and practices, social-emotional learning programs, school-based mental health supports, kindergarten readiness, and college success.
Dr. Solomon was recently selected as a 2020 Young Scholar by the Foundation for Child Development. With this funding from the Foundation for Child Development, she is currently principal investigator of a study examining implementation of a 2017 Maryland law that prohibits suspension and expulsion in early childhood settings. She also provides leadership and expertise in qualitative research across a range of other projects, including a study funded by Kaiser Permanente that explores health-related drivers of chronic absenteeism in Washington, DC; an implementation evaluation of a school climate framework in DC public and public charter schools, funded by the National Institute of Justice; a study being conducted in partnership with the DC Department of Behavioral Health, to evaluate the expansion of comprehensive school behavioral health supports in DC and promote continuous quality improvement; and a Child Care Research Partnership grant from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, to understand how a set of recent Maryland policies, regulations, and initiatives have affected low-income families' equitable access to high-quality care in Maryland.
Dr. Solomon previously served as qualitative lead researcher for a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, exploring state policymaker, educator, and student perspectives on healthy schools and perceived gaps in current practice. She also led a multi-site implementation evaluation of a Social Innovation Fund initiative designed to improve school readiness among low-income children. Additionally, she was project director for a study conducted in partnership with Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom, to understand the role that schools play in addressing hunger and healthy eating in rural Southern communities.
Prior to joining Child Trends in 2017, Dr. Solomon held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she served as lead evaluator for several college-community partnerships that supported first-generation students during the transition to college. She did this work as part of a research team dedicated to understanding and improving undergraduate student success, with a focus on the role of non-academic competencies (e.g., sense of belonging, academic self-efficacy, motivation, and self-regulated learning) in both college readiness and completion.
Dr. Solomon is currently developing research proposals to study effective strategies for preparing teachers to foster students' social-emotional development, based on her PhD dissertation, which highlighted a lack of attention to this development during pre-service teacher education.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Program Area Director, Education
- Deputy Program Area Director, Education, Bethesda
Brandon Stratford received his Ph.D. in public health at Johns Hopkins University with a focus on child and adolescent health. He has worked as an educator and a school-based social worker in the United States and Latin America and has experience implementing a number of evidence-based programs related to students' behavioral health as well as positive parenting behaviors in both English and Spanish. He is passionate about applied, multidisciplinary research on children's health and well-being that can serve to better inform policy and program decisions. He is particularly interested in understanding the direct and indirect pathways through which schools contribute to child well-being. His Ph.D. dissertation examined the relationship between schools' health-related programs, with an emphasis on nutrition services and physical education, and student-reported school engagement among middle school students living in rural communities.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Research Scientist II
- Research Scientist II, Los Angeles, CA
Brenda Miranda is a researcher in early childhood development. Brenda is an applied developmental psychologist who has conducted numerous mixed-method research studies and evaluations that examine the extent to which programs and policies promote children's development. Through this work, Brenda has promoted the use of data for programmatic decisions across a diverse set of organizations ranging from countywide social programs to government agencies, such as the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Brenda has integrated her knowledge in developmental psychology, research, policy, and evaluation to promote the use of research in practice, with the ultimate goal of strengthening programs aimed at improving the lives of children and families. She is committed to promoting organizational capacity building and the use of implementation science, engaging diverse stakeholders in discussions around informed decision-making, and translating and facilitating the use of research findings. Currently, her work is focused on improving quality in early childcare and education programs and promoting children's early development. She is particularly interested in supporting programs and investments aimed at fostering the early development of disadvantaged children.
Job Titles:
- Editorial Director
- Editorial Director for Child Trends
- Editorial Director, Bethesda, MD / Education & Certification / Master of Public Policy, American University, Hamilton Colleg
Brent Franklin is the editorial director for Child Trends. In this capacity, he reviews the organization's written technical and communications-oriented materials with an eye on both substantive feedback and copy edits. He also manages Child Trends' style guide and offers editorial and strategic support to the blog and Child Trends 5 newsletter. Prior to joining Child Trends, Brent worked as an editor and policy communications specialist in a variety of settings. He was most recently a writer/editor at Palladium, an international development consulting firm. There, he worked specifically on the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project, which strengthens and advances health policy priorities in developing country settings. Brent graduated from Hamilton College and from American University's School of Public Affairs, where he received a Master of Public Policy degree.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative at Child Trends
- Executive Director, Early Childhood Data Collaborative
- Executive Director, Early Childhood Data Collaborative, San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Carlise King is the executive director of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative at Child Trends, which promotes policies and practices that support the development and use of coordinated early childhood data across departments of education, social services, and public health to guide policy. Carlise regularly convenes experts from states and national and technical assistance groups to communicate effective strategies for data integration and use of data to support policy. She brings years of experience analyzing early childhood services to improve policies and coordinate services for vulnerable young children. Carlise has over 16 years of experience conducting state and national level research on early childhood issues and examining the impact of state and federal policies on parents' access to child care services, licensed child care supply, child care costs, and the child care workforce.
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- Member of the Management Team
- President
- Member of the Ex Officio / President, Child Trends
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- Senior Research Assistant
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- Technical Support Manager
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- Member / Strategy Director, Trident Management LLC
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- Vice Chair / President and CEO, Independent Sector
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- Senior Research Scientist II
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- Member / Vice President of Engineering, New York Times
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Senior Research Assistant
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- Senior Research Scientist I
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- Member of the Management Team
- Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Education and Youth Development
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- Member of the Management Team
- Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Lead Child Trends' Research Area on Education
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- Director of Policy Communications and Outreach
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- Research Scholar, Reproductive Health and Family Formation
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- Communications Coordinator
- General Media Inquiries
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- Interim Chair / Director Emeritus, Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art & Design
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- Senior Research Scientist I
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- Senior Research Assistant
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- Proposal and Strategy Specialist
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- Senior Research Assistant
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- Research Scholar, Child Welfare
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- Research Communications Specialist
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Senior Research Scientist I, Early Childhood Hiring and Supervision Manager
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- Senior Research Scientist and Program Area Co - Director, Reproductive Health and Family Formation
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- Member of the Management Team
- Vice President for Strategic Communications and Outreach
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- Research Communications Specialist II
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- Budget and Reporting Supervisor
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- Research Communications Specialist I
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- Senior Research Assistant
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- Business Development Coordinator
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- Proposal, Compliance, & Operations Manager
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- Senior Advisor, Business Development and Operations
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- Member of the Management Team
- Vice President for Early Childhood Research and Partnerships
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- Health Communications Manager
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- Digital Media Coordinator
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- Senior Research Scientist and Program Area Co - Director, Early Childhood Development
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- Research Scholar and Program Area Director
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- Research Scientist II, Early Childhood Development and Education Research Early Childhood Team Staffing Manager
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- Member of the Management Team
- Vice President for Public Policy and Engagement
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- Senior Scholar and past President
Job Titles:
- Visiting Distinguished Fellow
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Communications Assistant / Administration & Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Management Team
- Chief Strategy Officer and Director of the Hispanic Institute
Job Titles:
- Treasurer / Founder, Sparkfire Strategy
Job Titles:
- Member / Senior Director, Jobs for the Future
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist II
Job Titles:
- Research Communications Specialist II
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist II
Job Titles:
- Senior Contracts and Grants Specialist
Job Titles:
- Visiting Distinguished Fellow / Research
Job Titles:
- Member / Counsel, Butzel Long
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scholar of Black Children and Families
Job Titles:
- Senior Office and Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Budget and Reporting Manager
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the Management Team
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant / Communications
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Office and Executive Support Manager
Job Titles:
- Technical Assistance Specialist
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications for Operations
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist II and Early Childhood Race Equity Manager
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Specialist
Job Titles:
- Member / CEO and Executive Director, JCCA
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist and Early Childhood Research Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist II
Job Titles:
- Member / Professor of Practice and Founding Director of the Children 's Equity Project, Arizona State University
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Business Development Manager
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications for Digital Strategy
Job Titles:
- Secretary / Interim CEO, AHC, Inc
Job Titles:
- Research Communications Specialist II
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Data Scientist and Early Childhood Data Science Lead
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Area Director
Job Titles:
- Associate Data Scientist II
Job Titles:
- Program Area Director, Youth Development, Poverty and Inequality