Rebecca Fauth (she/her), PhD is a developmental psychologist and applied statistician specializing in research and evaluation of social policies and programs on children and families. Her research aims to unpack whether, how, and for whom programs are or are not effective. Rebecca’s expertise on the influence of poverty, neighborhoods, and community contexts on children’s development and family well-being is complemented by extensive knowledge of mixed methods research, evaluation design, and research-practice integration. She is principal investigator (PI) on several evaluations focused on home visiting and other dual-generation family support programs and community-wide place-based initiatives. She is currently leading two quasi-experimental evaluations of home visiting programs in Massachusetts to assess impacts of home visiting on maternal and infant health and developmental outcomes. Rebecca is co-PI of TIER’s longstanding Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM) evaluation, served as co-PI and quantitative task lead on the Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MA MIECHV) program needs assessment, and is co-PI of a HRSA-funded project conducted under the Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative (HARC) that supports evidence-based home visiting models to build their capacity for collaborative research using shared data. She co-developed the community evaluator model used by TIER, bringing in her experience training and leading a cohort of youth research advisors for a UK Department of Health research program.
Other current or recent projects include a policy-practice-research project adapting home visiting for justice system involved parents, a pilot project examining the integration of home visiting with recovery support for families with substance use disorder, a study of father engagement in home visiting, and an evaluation of a city-wide effort to support families affected by substance use and behavioral health challenges, among other projects. At the start of her career, she worked as a preschool teacher and a family support case worker conducting home visits. Rebecca has a BA (with Honors) in psychology and anthropology from the College of the Holy Cross, and an MS in applied statistics and a PhD in developmental psychology, both from Columbia University. Get in touch with Rebecca here!