Carol Emig has spent her career working at the intersection of public policy, programs, and research related to children and youth. Since 2006, she has been President of Child Trends, an independent, nonpartisan research center. Child Trends improves the lives and prospects of children and youth by conducting high-quality research and applying the resulting knowledge to public policies, programs, and systems.

A growing organization of more than 85 skilled professionals, Child Trends’ research portfolio includes extensive work in early childhood; youth development; teen childbearing; education; child welfare; reproductive health, family structure, and parenting; child poverty; and the transition to adulthood. Child Trends, as its name suggests, has particular expertise in developing, tracking, and analyzing data on children and youth.

Under Carol’s leadership, Child Trends has significantly expanded its capacity to communicate research effectively to key stakeholders, and its outreach and interaction with programs that provide direct services to children, youth, and families. In particular, Child Trends works extensively with decision makers to use data effectively, to incorporate evidence-based practices into their programs and policies, to evaluate their effectiveness, and to use all of this information to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and youth.

From 2002 to 2006, Carol was Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, a blue-ribbon panel of child welfare experts. Many of the Commission’s recommendations were enacted by Congress or adopted by state agencies and state Supreme Courts. Prior to this, she was Vice President for External Relations at Child Trends, where she built the organization’s public policy communications department.

Carol’s other professional experiences include Deputy Director of the National Commission on Children, a bipartisan Congressional-Presidential panel; Senior Associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy; director of a state children’s advocacy organization; and, early in her career, research assistant to First Lady Rosalynn Carter. She serves on the Boards of Directors of Reach Out and Read; the Stoneleigh Foundation; and the Children’s Chorus of Washington. She is also an advisor to the Board of Directors of Venture Philanthropy Partners. Carol has an undergraduate degree in international relations from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.