I make VC-based investments in early stage startups that promote and support healthy youth development, with a particular emphasis on mental-behavioral health, physical and neurocognitive development, and social and emotional learning. Startup enterprises can focus directly on young people ages birth to age 18 or focus on their parents and caregivers, as we know that healthier parenting leads to healthier children.

In this position, I led the Wisconsin Department of Children and Family's (DCF) response to sex trafficking of youth. I was the principal policy advisor on human trafficking issues, with substantial authority to advise, develop, and lead the implementation of policies and programs that provided a coordinated and comprehensive state response. I set strategic direction regarding changes and initiatives on this issue as they related to Wisconsin’s child welfare and youth (juvenile) justice systems, and their interactions with the courts, law enforcement, health, service providers, and other systems. I functioned as the lead of the Wisconsin Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force by managing the work of the Task Force and its workgroups, in consultation with its co-chairs, the DCF Secretary and Wisconsin Attorney General. I also developed and maintained relationships with cross-system stakeholders at the local, regional, state and national levels, and managed the implementation of DCF-funded anti-trafficking programs.

Research and evaluation work included:*Principle Investigator for the Connections at Project Harmony evaluation: Developed an implementation evaluation plan, data collection, and analyses of a new program that connects school-based referrals for youth services with community mental health providers in Omaha, NE*Education lead and research team member for Voices of Youth Count (www.voicesofyouthcount.org): Lead education expert for qualitative and quantitative components, assisted with research plan implementation for 22 sites across the country to understand the experiences of runaway and unaccompanied homeless youth. *Principal Investigator (PI) for implementation evaluation of a Trauma-Informed Psychiatric Clinic designed to serve youth on probation in the Cook County juvenile justice system.*Lead research team member for the Resilience & Voice Project: Partnered with Umoja, Mikva, Lurie Children's, & Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to evaluate implementation of a wraparound model providing restorative justice, mental health services, and leadership training to CPS high school students.*Principle Investigator for evaluation of ADHD diagnosis, trauma, and youth in the IL child welfare system: sought to understand the potential influence of trauma and whether youth were receiving the appropriate diagnosis in a timely manner*Evaluation project manager for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative at CPS. Team studied the effectiveness of a youth development program (Teen Outreach Program) on short- and long-term outcomes related to health and education. *Evaluation team member for CDC Community Transformation Grant with CPS: Implemented qualitative evaluation to understand the success of five targeted health and wellness outcomes.*Consultant to SAMHSA and NORC on multisite federal evaluation of Project LAUNCH: developed instruments to measure early childhood well-being on social-emotional, cognitive, parent-child relationship, and mental health domains.

I taught human development as it relates to the urban context to graduate students in the elementary and secondary education tracks. Topics I covered include bioecological systems theory, learning and teaching theories, social and emotional development, identity development, math, science, and literacy education, ableism, mental health issues, and the impact of trauma on educational systems.

I was a teaching fellow (TF) for several courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including:H-380A/B: Childhood Pre-practicum and Practicum (year-long)Content areas: Developmental counseling, attachment theory, systems theory, relational theoryH-331: Risk & Resilience in Social Contexts from Birth to Young Adulthood: Strategies of Prevention and InterventionContent areas: Risk and prevention, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, prevention science, human developmentH-382: The Problems Kids Have: Psychosocial, Developmental, and Biological Perspectives of Risk in School-Age ChildrenContent areas: DSM-IV-TR mental disorders, psychological, biological, sociocultural, and developmental perspectives of risk, prevention and intervention strategiesH-370: Social and Ethical Development in the Elementary and Secondary School YearsContent areas: Identity formation, peer relations, youth social competenceH-396/H-397: Research Experience in Risk & Prevention (year-long)Content areas: Quantitative and qualitative methodologies, research ethics, developing research proposalsS-530: Mapping Out and Writing a Critical Literature ReviewContent areas: Developing research proposals, strategies for critically reviewing academic literatureDuties include lecturing, leading and facilitating small discussion sections of master's and doctoral graduate students, grading, website management, and facilitation between school and field work sites.

Social skills, self-esteem, special education, gifted, and anger-management groups for fifth and sixth grade students, individual therapy to students with identified emotional or behavioral needs, social work goals for individualized education plans (IEPs), social developmental studies on students referred for evaluation, homeroom lessons for fifth graders on bullying and teasing prevention, CPI non-violent crisis intervention training

Qualitative coding of parenting behaviors using the Parenting Clinical Observation Scale (P-COS) with the parent module of the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule (DB-DOS)

One-on-one therapy and support to older adult clients ages 65 to 101 with cognitive and/or physical challenges, co-facilitation of spousal caregiver group, quarterly psychosocial assessments of residents, interviewed staff and residents to gather data on the process of transitioning to higher levels of care, interdisciplinary meetings focused on resident quality of life issues

Data collection and management of a multi-site longitudinal study tracking mothers and their children ages 2-6, administration of PLS, participation recruitment and follow-up, transcription using the CHILDES program, creation of a behavioral coding scheme for use with Noldus Observer, training and overseeing undergraduate workers, managing computer resources, transferring data to digital media for cross-site data exchange