Laura Hawkinson
Laura
Hawkinson
Vice President of Research and Evaluation
“I am passionate about supporting the well-being of children and families. I enjoy using my expertise in rigorous research methodology to support partners and colleagues in ensuring high quality early learning opportunities for children.”
Laura is a systems thinker. She helps the SRC team see both the forest and the trees when tackling complex problems.
Laura has methodological expertise in quantitative research methods, including experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, correlational research, instrument validation, and survey methods. She has content expertise in early childhood programs and policies, such as quality rating and improvement systems, child care subsidies, public prekindergarten, and Head Start and Early Head Start. Laura applies her expertise in early childhood programs and policies, research design, and analysis methods to research and evaluation projects at SRC, sometimes serving as principal investigator on evaluation projects.
Laura has over 15 years of experience conducting applied research on early childhood programs and policies. Laura began her career teaching toddlers living in homeless shelters. Prior to SRC, she held research positions at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), and Mathematica Policy Research (MPR). Laura holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and was an Institute for Education Sciences pre-doctoral fellow.
location_on Massachusetts
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