DCFYI

Lauren is the Program Area Director for Early Childhood Research at Child Trends. She previously served as Director, Division of Family Strengthening in the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families of the US Department of Health and Human Services. She is motivated to work on research and evaluation with a goal of applying the knowledge to policy and practice. She is interested in conducting research and evaluation that can contribute to program improvement and improved outcomes for children and families and passionate about improving the quality of the policy-relevant research and evaluation and the quality of the evaluation workforce.

Lauren's personal research interests include evidence-based policy, social-emotional development in early childhood, parenting, prevention/intervention programs for children at-risk, and implementation research. She has a passion for innovation and improvement of disseminating research findings to policy-makers, practitioners, and the research community.