My position within the agency allowed me the opportunity to support the CEO, Executive Team, and program leads in building efficiencies in their work, developing proposals to federal and state granting agencies, automating data collection and management efforts, assisting in reporting efforts, conducting primary research to advance the agency’s goal of becoming a learning organization, and defining and developing ways to better measure success for clients, programs, and the agency.

My role as director provided me with an opportunity to work with many dedicated organizations and individuals who are committed to improving the lives of children and families nationwide – and in North Dakota communities specifically – tribal, rural, and urban. My goal is to ensure they have the information they need (objective, reliable, understandable, and current) to make the decisions necessary to most effectively meet the needs of children and families. This is accomplished through data collection and analysis, quarterly and annual publications, GIS mapping projects, media outreach, public presentations, and website management.North Dakota KIDS COUNT is part of KIDS COUNT, a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Supported by the Center for Social Research at North Dakota State University, North Dakota KIDS COUNT measures the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children in North Dakota in order to inform local and state discussions about how to secure better futures for all of North Dakota’s children.Understanding the current and historical benchmarks for child well-being, the underlying context for each, and the relative importance of potential outcomes is vital to the process of forming decisions that impact our communities and the lives of North Dakota's children and families.

Through my work at the Center, I've been able to build and maintain strong relationships with clients, sponsors, and community members; mentor student employees in developing new research skills; engage in primary and secondary research and problem solving; provide computer software support; and engage regularly in professional development skills training.The Center for Social Research (CSR) at North Dakota State University (NDSU) is an applied social science research unit dedicated to providing a venue through which a wide variety of research activities are facilitated. The research team has garnered funding through a number of sources, including foundations, nonprofit organizations, and local, state, and federal entities, to address a broad array of topics, from early childhood and aging to housing and public health. The team has strengths in survey research, program evaluation, needs assessments, and social indicator projects such as North Dakota KIDS COUNT (ndkidscount.org) and North Dakota Compass (ndcompass.org). Prior to 2012, the Center was known as the North Dakota State Data Center.