Emma has over eight years of experience designing and implementing rigorous, mixed-methods evaluations of prevention services and systems transformation efforts. She has expertise in quasi-experimental design, matching, and weighting methods, as well as methods of causal inference. Emma has used administrative and longitudinal survey data sets to identify how programs or policies are working and for whom they are most successful. She has worked closely with government systems, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic organizations to execute evaluations and disseminate findings with policy and practice implications. Emma has also led multiple mixed-methods evaluations that blend quantitative and qualitative data to ensure a full understanding of evaluation findings and family experiences.

Emma works on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Collaborative, which is a multi-organization partnership funded by the Administration for Children and Families that focuses on building the analytic capacity of state TANF agencies. In this project, Emma leverages her expertise in income support policies, administrative data analysis, and technical assistance to assist teams of TANF staff in completing an analytic project from beginning to end.

Previously, Emma worked at Chapin Hall where she designed and implemented rigorous, quasi-experimental evaluations of prevention services in three child welfare jurisdictions across the country. She also helped design and implement a formative evaluation of a multi-site child welfare systems transformation effort. Finally, she worked with state TANF agencies and TANF administrative data to understand aspects of the TANF program such as caseload dynamics, barriers to access, and employment outcomes. Across these projects, she led teams in designing, planning, and executing complex evaluation and administrative data analysis while building strong external partnerships. Prior to Chapin Hall, Emma was a child welfare policy analyst for Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families. Her work focused on evaluating policies and program initiatives in the Wisconsin child welfare system, as well as guiding implementation and continuous quality improvement efforts.