Elizabeth Blesson

Elizabeth (Liz) Blesson’s research focuses on programs and policies that are designed to improve the lives of children, youth, and families from marginalized backgrounds. She specializes in implementation and evaluation technical assistance, with a strong foundation in research design. 

Since joining Mathematica in 2019, Blesson has worked on a range of projects in early childhood, K–12 education, teen pregnancy prevention, and family support. Currently, she serves as the deputy project director for the Institute of Education Sciences’ Regional Educational Laboratory partnership with DC Public schools (DCPS) to enhance its multitiered systems of support strategy. She is a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer in both group and single case studies and has four years of experience providing implementation and evaluation technical assistance for grantees implementing healthy relationship programming. She is the co-author of the program model for sexual risk avoidance education, and is a strong advocate for high-quality, culturally responsive relationship and sexual health education for youth and young adults. 

Before joining Mathematica, Blesson served as a data analyst for the DCPS Language Acquisition Division. In this role, she led the district's early internal efforts to evaluate DCPS’s dual-language programs. She also provided technical assistance to school leaders to help them better understand and use data pertaining to linguistically and culturally diverse youth and inform their support strategy. Blesson has an M.Ed. in measurement, evaluation, statistics, and assessment from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College.