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Jen Brooks, Director
Jennifer Brooks serves as an independent consultant and a senior impact advisor at Project Evident, where she supports Project Evident team members in developing Strategic Evidence Plans, bringing particular expertise in measurement and evaluation. In her role as a consultant, Dr. Brooks provides advice and support to philanthropy, non-profits, and governments on using evaluation, metrics, and evidence-based practice to strengthen the impact of programs for children and families. Dr. Brooks has significant experience in large foundations and in government.
She served as Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, helping to shape the foundation’s strategic investments in high quality public early learning programs and playing an active role in the foundation’s P-16 working group. She joined the foundation after overseeing human services, workforce, and economic development initiatives at the National Governors Association. Prior to that, she spent ten years in the federal government. There she led the Head Start research portfolio at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and advised on the Obama administration’s efforts in evidence-based policy making and performance management at the Office of Management and Budget. She began her career in think tanks, studying the impact of the 1990s state welfare waiver programs on children. Dr. Brooks is respected in the fields of evaluation, evidence-based practice, and early childhood education. She served on a National Academy of Sciences panel evaluating methods for promoting better use of economic evidence in social programs for children. Dr. Brooks earned a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State University and a M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. |