People

Jennifer Ford

Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation

B.S. Public Policy, Penn State, M.Ed., Training and Development,

Penn State

Jennifer serves as the Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation and Project Coordinator for the Center. Jennifer organizes the collection of assessments taking place throughout the state of Pennsylvania for projects such as Character Education, PATHS to Success, Mother/Infant Stress Project, TimeWise and PANA (Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity). She trains and coordinates essential personnel for each project including directing and managing a team of research assistants. Jennifer serves as the liaison to school personnel, working with all of the principals, teachers, and school staff; manages the recruitment of mothers with infants within the Harrisburg area to participate in a Mother/Infant Stress Project as well as coordinates research design models and data analysis within each project.

Jennifer maintains and oversees the project database and is also responsible for all IRB work that comes through the Center. She is also responsible for ensuring all quality control and security measures are in place.

 

Toni Stewart

Research Coordinator
B.S. Biology, University of Pittsburgh

M.Ed. Training & Development, Penn State

Toni Stewart serves as a Research Coordinator for Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development. She organizes and ensures the timely collection of the child assessments and parent and teachers surveys taking place throughout the Harrisburg School District for the Harrisburg Preschool Program Evaluation. She trains essential personnel on all child measures used on the project. She serves as the liaison to school personnel, working with all of the principals, teachers, and school staff. Toni maintains and oversees the project database as well. Toni also directs and manages a team of research assistants who work in the field.

Prior to her employment with the Center, Toni worked in the insurance and legal industry where she gained many years of experience in employee supervision and training.  She received her M.Ed. in Training and Development from Penn State in May 2005. 

 

Celia Zehring

Research Assistant

B.S. Human Development & Family Studies: Children, Youth & Families, Penn State

Celia Zehring serves a Research Assistant for the Center. Celia assists in coordinating Center projects including TimeWise and Character Education.  She effectively implements data collection requirements with 7th-9th grade students in the Harrisburg City School District.  Other tasks include: the preparation of surveys, data entry and data cleaning.

 

Jennifer Zajac

Evaluation Manager, Division of Applied Research and Evaluation (DARE), University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development

In collaboration with community-based and governmental social service agencies, DARE helps organizations across the Commonwealth build organizational capacity for program improvement and self-evaluation through training, technical assistance, and program evaluation.  Jennifer’s current and past projects include an evaluation of a post-traumatic stress disorder for female juvenile offenders, evaluating the implementation of Systems of Care principles in child welfare, and helping to develop a training and technical assistance support center for Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system.  Jennifer represents the Harrisburg “arm” of DARE.