Brenda P. Jones Harden
Brenda P. Jones Harden is the Alison Richman professor of Children and Families at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She directs the Prevention and Early Adversity Research Laboratory, where she and her research team examine the developmental and mental health needs of young children from low-income backgrounds, who have experienced early adversity such as maltreatment. A particular focus is preventing maladaptive outcomes in these populations through early childhood programs, including home visitation, parenting interventions, early care and education, and early childhood mental health programs. She has numerous publications in the early childhood and early adversity arenas, including the sole-authored book Infants in the Child Welfare System. She has been a Society for Research in Child Development Policy Fellow, in which she worked on early childhood program evaluations and research on children in the child welfare system. She is currently the vice president of the Board of Zero to Three and on the Board of the Lourie Center, a local program focused on the development and mental health of young children. Dr. Jones Harden received a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University (1996) and a Master's in social work from New York University (1980).

Pamela K. Joshi
Pamela K. Joshi is a senior scientist and the associate director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Joshi's research investigates how social policies (e.g., early childhood education, paid family and medical leave, anti-poverty programs) influence children's developmental trajectories and evaluates their effectiveness in reducing racial/ethnic inequities in access to opportunities. She is trained in Cochrane systematic review and equity methods and has been funded to undertake comprehensive policy reviews including, most recently, children in immigrant families' access to the social safety net. She serves on several expert panels including the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Research and Planning Evaluation's Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Human Services Project. In 2015, Dr. Joshi and colleagues received the Lawrence R. Klein Award from the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics for their research documenting differential job quality of working parents by race, ethnicity and nativity. In 2019, she helped organize the NASEM Panel, “A Dialogue on Racial/Ethnic Equity and Policy Proposals to Reduce Child Poverty” and currently is serving on the planning committee for a follow up panel in 2021. Dr. Joshi received her Ph.D. in social policy from Brandeis University in 2001 and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan in 1993.

Shantel E. Meek
Shantel E. Meek is a professor of practice and the founding director of the Children's Equity Project (CEP) at Arizona State University. She manages a budget of over a million dollars, strategic partnerships with CEP partners at 17 universities and non-profit organizations, policy makers, and national organizations, and sets the strategic direction of the CEP. Dr. Meek previously served as a consultant in early childhood policy and strategy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C. where she advised senior staff on a range of federal and state equity and early childhood policy issues. Previously, Dr. Meek served in the Obama Administration as a Senior Policy Advisor for Early Childhood Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and as a Senior Policy Advisor for Education in the Domestic Policy Council at the White House. During her time in the Obama Administration, Dr. Meek advised senior officials at HHS and at The White House on a wide array of policy issues including Head Start, child care, public Pre-K expansion, and promoting equity and reducing disparities across the early care and education system. She also worked on drafting official guidance related to Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant and worked closely with states, communities, and stakeholders on implementation.

Bela Mote
Bela Moté is chief executive officer of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, is an experienced non-profit executive and early childhood professional who has spent her career supporting early childhood and youth development at the local, national and international levels. She is committed to providing high-quality, deeply impactful programs for children, youth, and families. Prior to being named chief executive officer of the center, Ms. Moté served as vice president, Evidence-Based Youth Development for the YMCA of the USA. She has also held leadership positions with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, Teaching Strategies, Inc., and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. She began her career in early childhood as a Montessori preschool teacher and considers that experience to be her North Star. Ms. Moté earned a master's degree in education from Erikson Institute in 1999, is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and participates on many councils and committees at the state and city levels. Ms. Moté was a Chicago Foundation for Women's Breaking Barriers 2011 honoree.

Milagros Nores
Milagros Nores is co-director for research, and associate research professor at NIEER. Her expertise is in early childhood attainment, the economics of education, poverty, and international and comparative education. Dr. Nores has recently concluded an early childhood study in Colombia and a study on parental-child educational practices for minority children in the U.S, an evaluation of the Seattle preschool program, and is currently the lead in evaluations of the Philadelphia and West Virginia's preschools programs. Dr. Nores previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Taubman Center in Public Policy, Brown University. Dr. Nores also consults for various organizations in education projects in Latin America and Asia. She has been involved in sponsored research amounting to $14 million. Dr. Nores has a strong emphasis in moving beyond descriptive analysis to making inferences about programs and policies, examining long-term benefits of pre-K, such as decreased welfare dependency, understanding the determinants of preschool access and participation for different types of households, and assessing the impacts of access (or lack thereof) to pre-K on later academic achievement. She is bilingual in Spanish and English. She has a Ph.D. in Education and Economics from Columbia University and an Ed.M. in Educational Administration and Social Policy from Harvard University.

Cynthia Osborne
Cynthia Osborne is the founder and director of the Child and Family Research Partnership (CFRP) and leads its national Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, home of the Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap (2020) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. She is also Associate Dean for Academic Strategies and Director of the Center for Health and Social Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Osborne was an appointed member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics (NASEM) Committee to Reduce Child Poverty by Half in Ten Years. She also serves as the Chair of the Responsible Fatherhood working group for the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN), a long-term project of the federal Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. She is an elected member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Policy Council, the leadership team responsible for setting policy and strategy for the association. She also directs The University of Texas at Austin’s institutional membership of SRCD’s University-Based Child Family Policy Consortium. Dr. Osborne’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of social policy, poverty and inequality, family and child wellbeing, and family demography. She has extensive experience leading long-term evaluations of state and national programs, with the aim of helping organizations understand what works, and how to ensure sustainable implementation of effective policies. Her work includes evaluations of one of the largest home visiting programs in the country (Texas) and many critical state-level child welfare and child support programs. Previously, Dr. Osborne taught middle school in a low-income community in California. Dr. Osborne holds a Ph.D. in Demography and Public Affairs from Princeton University, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Master of Arts in Education from Claremont Graduate University.

Albert Wat
Albert Wat is a senior policy director at the Alliance for Early Success, where he supports the organization’s strategy and goals for early education, including increasing access to high-quality pre-k, improving the early learning workforce, and enhancing alignment with K-12 policies. Mr. Wat has served on two National Academies committees: Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation; and, Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity. He also serves on the board of the Council for Professional Recognition. Mr. Wat holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University and a master’s in education policy from George Washington University.

Rebekah Hutton - (Staff Officer)
Rebekah Hutton is a program officer for the National Academies. She is currently the study director of the Committee on Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Age Eight. Prior to that, she was study director of the Committee on Summertime Experiences and Child and Adolescent Education, Health, and Safety. Prior to the Academies, she was an education management and information technology consultant working on projects in the United States as well as Haiti, Equatorial Guinea, and Djibouti. She has also worked as a program manager and researcher at the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University, studying whether teacher pay for performance has measurable impact on student outcomes, and as an English language lecturer in Tourcoing, France. During her time with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, she has worked on projects focused on fostering the educational success of children and youth learning English, reducing child poverty, and promoting the mental, emotional and behavioral health of children and youths. She received her M.Ed. degree from Vanderbilt University in international education policy and management and a B.A. degree from the University of Tennessee in French language and literature.