June 2021 Newsletter

 
 

Network Member Spotlight: Julia Hernández, PhD, MSW

Dr. Julia Hernández graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019 with a PhD in Social Welfare. She currently serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) Human Services Department. Dr. Hernández oversees evaluation of child welfare worker trainings for California’s northern region and manages a team conducting research on disability and deinstitutionalization.

Her team’s current projects include analysis of California’s National Core Indicators (NCI) Survey, a nationally validated and reliable quality assurance instrument that assesses individual and family satisfaction with services provided to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. In partnership with the California Department of Developmental Services, her team also manages data for the Mover Longitudinal Study (MLS). The MLS uses the NCI surveys with disabled individuals who moved from developmental centers to the community to assess quality of life, satisfaction with services, and the degree to which individuals achieve their goals. One of Dr. Hernández’s main goals with these projects is to make the study findings accessible to community stakeholders, which is something she credits the Doris Duke Fellowship with. She explains that the fellowships helped her think creatively about how to connect research findings with the communities who can most benefit from them. As a result, her team is working on a series of interactive dashboards that clients, families, and service providers can use to examine NCI outcomes for their region.

Prior to joining UC Davis, Dr. Hernández served as a postdoctoral scholar at the Arizona State University Center for Child Well-being (CCWB) where she managed multiple statewide child welfare projects, including the Arizona National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD). NYTD is a federal mandated initiative that collects information from transition-aged youth about their experiences transitioning from foster care to independent adulthood. One of the most exciting aspects of this project was its inclusion of current and former foster youth at every stage of development. Current and former foster youth provided input on the survey domains, survey questions, and project branding. Former foster youth also served on the project team, administering surveys, and assisting with data management and dissemination.

R2A Grants Update:

Reminder that applications for the second round of Research to Action Grants must be submitted by 11:59pm CT on Sunday, August 1st, 2021. Thank you for your interest and we look forward to reviewing all submissions! If you have any questions, you can find additional information on our website, or contact Lee Ann Huang directly at lhuang@chapinhall.org.

Collaborative Research Project Update:

One of the fellowships’ small groups (Alysse Loomis, Annie Davis, Gracelyn Cruden, Christina Padilla, and Yonah Drazen) completed a qualitative deep-dive into existing state legislation that has been proposed or passed to address preschool suspension and/or expulsion (find the article here). They concluded that very few bills identified specific alternatives to exclusionary discipline, funding, or other resources to support implementation of alternatives, or detailed methods for tracking whether the legislation is effective at reducing overall rates and associated disparities. They also identified several recommendations for future comprehensive legislation to address existing policy limitations.

Social Media Announcement:

The network team is excited to announce that we are currently developing a social media presence. We have launched an official LinkedIn and Twitter page that will soon become active. Make sure to give us a like and follow!

Network Member Updates: 

 

Barbara H Chaiyachati is excited to share that she has completed her clinical fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She will be staying at CHOP to launch the clinical care track for infants with history of prenatal substance exposure, along with Meredith Matone (CHOP PolicyLab).

Bart Klika has several updates.