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Dana Schultz

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Senior Policy Researcher
Pittsburgh Office

Education

M.P.P. in public policy, Harvard University

Media Resources

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Overview

Dana Schultz is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She has extensive experience in research design, process and outcomes evaluations, quantitative and qualitative data collection, and collaborative research relationships with agencies and organizations in different health and social service sectors. Schultz has conducted evaluation studies to document implementation and assess effectiveness of programs designed to improve health, mental health, and other outcomes for parents, children, and families. Her recent research has focused on addressing infant mortality by identifying infant mortality risk and reducing that risk through referrals to an optimized and personalized mix of health, social service, and community prevention strategies.  Other efforts to improve child-serving systems include recent work to develop a model of the child welfare system that allows for an assessment of the costs and benefits of a wide range of different policy options designed to improve child outcomes; an evaluation of a cross-system quality improvement effort to improve system capacity and care for families facing the dual challenges of parental depression and early childhood developmental delays; and an evaluation of an initiative bridging the physical health and behavioral health systems to increase screening, referrals, and behavioral health treatment for women at high risk for maternal depression. Her portfolio of evaluation work includes studies examining the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve outcomes for children exposed to violence. Schultz received her M.P.P. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

  • Prediction and reduction of infant mortality in Allegheny County
  • Modeling the costs and benefits of policy options for improving child welfare system outcomes
  • National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches to examine the effectiveness of programs for reducing the effects of children’s violence exposure
  • Evaluation of the Helping Families Raise Healthy Children initiative to improve systems of care for families with both parental depression and child developmental delays

Selected Publications

Ringel, Jeanne S., Dana Schultz, Joshua Mendelsohn, Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Katharine Anne Sieck, Ifeanyi Edochie, and Lauren Davis, Improving Child Welfare Outcomes: Balancing Investments in Prevention and Treatment, RAND (RR-1775), 2017

Schultz, Dana, Lisa H. Jaycox, Lynsay Ayer, Claude Messan Setodji, Ammarah Mahmud, Aaron Kofner and Dionne Barnes-Proby, Improving Outcomes for Children Exposed to Violence: Safe Start Promising Approaches, RAND (RR-1728), 2017

Barnes-Proby, Dionne, Dana Schultz, Lisa H. Jaycox and Lynsay Ayer, Five Strategies for Successful Recruitment and Retention of Children and Families in Human Service Programs, RAND (TL-242), 2017

Schultz, D., Sontag-Padilla, L., Building Better Boyhood Programs, RAND (RR-1150), 2015

Schultz D, Reynolds K, Sontag-Padilla L, Lovejoy S, Firth R, and Pincus HA, Transforming Systems for Parental Depression and Early Childhood Developmental Delays: Findings and Lessons Learned from the Helping Families Raise Healthy Children Initiative, RAND (RR-122), 2013

Schultz, D., Reynolds, K., Sontag-Padilla, L. Lovejoy, S.L., Firth, R., Schake, P., Hawk, J., Killmeyer, S., Troup, E., Myers-Cepicka, M., Perich, M., A Toolkit for Implementing Parental Depression Screening, Referral and Treatment across Systems, RAND (TL-102), 2012

Schultz, D., Jaycox, L., Hickman, L.J., Chandra, A., Barnes-Proby, D., Acosta, J., Beckman, A., Francois, T., Honess-Morreale, L., National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches: Assessing Program Implementation, RAND (TR-750), 2010

Schultz, D., Jaycox, L., Hickman, L.J., Setodji, C., Kofner, A., Harris, R., Barnes-Proby, D., "The relationship between protective factors and outcomes for children exposed to violence," Violence and Victims, 0, 2013

Commentary

  • A mother holding a baby in a rocking chair while looking out a window

    New Depression-Screening Guidelines Could Help Both Mother and Child

    Behavioral health professionals and community agencies often do not consider the impact of parental depression on young children or focus on the adult's role as a parent. New guidelines recommending depression screening during primary care visits for pregnant women and new mothers are a critical first step.

    Mar 18, 2016 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  • U.S. President Barack Obama is introduced to speak by Christian Champagne from Chicago at the unveiling of Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative

    Realizing the Potential of 'My Brother's Keeper'

    The White House has mobilized an impressive coalition to address a critical national challenge, and used the power of research evidence to begin to structure the initiative. By drawing more lessons from research, the initiative can further bolster its chance to build strong and lasting ladders of opportunity and success for boys and young men of color.

    Mar 16, 2014 The Hill

  • Blog

    Preschool Pays Off

    Published commentary by RAND staff: Preschool Pays Off, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

    Sep 20, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Publications