Joanne Lee has 14 years of experience designing and conducting evaluations of programs serving children, youth, and families. She has worked with federal and local agencies on analyses of complex administrative and survey data to build their knowledge of what works and where improvements can be made.
Lee works on a range of child welfare projects, including evaluations and training and technical assistance to support implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). She is directing a project with the University of Missouri analyzing Missouri’s child welfare data to improve practices related to the administration of psychotropic drugs for youth in foster care. She also provides data-driven assistance to support states’ improvements to child welfare systems in partnership with the Children’s Bureau. Previously, Lee directed an evaluation for Arizona of an in-home parenting education program that aims to prevent out-of-home placement. She also led a task to strengthen the research and evaluation capacity of child welfare staff in Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services by providing staff with study support and organizing full-day trainings on analytic methods in alignment with research standards in the FFPSA.
In addition to her engagement with state and local agencies, Lee has worked on federal and foundation projects to examine the extent to which state child welfare agencies connect their administrative data to data in other systems; to systematically review evidence on programs for transition-age youth in foster care and programs in home visiting; and to verify data gathered on states’ definitions of maltreatment.
Lee joined Mathematica in 2011, bringing a passion for public policy research that can help identify and implement improvements to programs and services. In 2018, she joined the Program and Evaluation Unit for child welfare services in Riverside County, California, and led a range of research and evaluation projects for county programs and initiatives. She rejoined Mathematica in 2020 after relocating to Los Angeles. Lee holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics and an M.A. in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley.
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This brief describes typical patterns of participation in three programs that were part of the STREAMS evaluation. It identifies distinct patterns of participation in each of these programs and provides profiles of the clients who participate in these distinct ways.
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