Roseana Bess

Roseana J. Bess is an expert on best practices in program implementation and has designed and conducted implementation evaluations of services for children and families involved with or at risk of involvement with child welfare. She has planned and conducted site visits, synthesized their results, and given technical assistance to facilitate the use of data—including fidelity and performance data—to strengthen implementation and improve services.

Bess, who came to Mathematica in 2018, has contributed to numerous child welfare projects. She is currently the deputy project director of Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare, planning and conducting a pilot study in four sites and using continuous learning processes to test the success of different strategies to engage fathers and paternal relatives. She leads evaluation activities for the Center for Native Child and Family Resilience, which is a Quality Improvement Center designed to support tribal communities in building evidence to prevent and intervene in child maltreatment. She also supports Mathematica in developing data, advanced analytics, and program improvement solutions for state and local child welfare agencies.

Bess came to Mathematica from JBS International, Inc., where she was a principal on the senior leadership team and served as director on several projects. Before that, she worked at the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services Agency, monitoring agency strategies and performance on court-ordered outcomes. She also worked at the Urban Institute as a research associate. She started her career as a case manager, working with families at risk of having their children placed in foster care. She holds an M.P.P. from American University.