Nuzhat Islam

Nuzhat Islam’s research and projects focus on child welfare policies across states, youth at risk of homelessness, and program evaluation. She is the deputy project director of the State Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) Policies Database, which is a new data resource documenting states’ definitions and policies related to the incidence of child abuse and neglect. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, and the Children’s Bureau. For this project, Islam leads the development and implementation of the data collection and document review process. She also plays a key role on a project titled Building Capacity to Evaluate Interventions for Youth/Young Adults with Child Welfare Involvement at Risk of Homelessness, for which she conducted a qualitative process study of how grantees implemented models to improve outcomes for youth in regard to housing, education and training, social well-being, and permanent connections. For another project, she conducted qualitative research on the variability in states’ use of exceptions to timeline requirements for termination of parental rights. In addition, she leads the management team for several large-scale family support projects, including projects that design and conduct national program evaluations and that provide evaluation technical assistance to grantees.

Islam has more than 10 years of experience managing complex projects for federal and state clients. She joined Mathematica in 2014. She has an M.S. in applied economics from the University of Maryland and is a certified Project Management Professional.