Evandra Catherine

Dr. Catherine’s research addresses equity in policy, practices, and systems for young learners, especially Black children and their families. Her work focuses on advancing equity in early care and education through Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, and policies that support the high-quality inclusion of young children with disabilities and restrict or prohibit the use of harsh discipline. 

Guiding Research Questions

• How do the intersections of race, gender, implicit bias, and discrimination manifest in the early learning environments, specifically through teacher practices?

• How to promote racial justice with emotion and culturally focused strategies in early childhood classrooms? 

• How does early childhood mental health consultation advance equity in early care and learning programs?

Current Projects

One of Catherine’s current projects (funded by the Administration for Children and Families) is examining exclusionary discipline in public school affiliated preschool programs. Using secondary data analyses from data collected from the US Department of Education Civil Right Data Collection and the National Center for Education Statistics, US Census and the Children’s Opportunity Index. Catherine is specifically focused on policy, school, and child-level characteristics that contribute to the use of harsh discipline in early care and learning settings.

In a second project (funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), Catherine is working with Georgetown’s research and evaluation team to establish consensus on the core activities of the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC), an evidence-based approach that pairs mental health professionals with people who work with young children and their families.

Additionally, through University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Catherine is involved with an Equity Research Action Coalition to develop a  Repository of Practices and Policies that Preserve, Promote, and Protect Black children and families. She also serves as an external equity reviewer for the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center  at UNC- CHapel Hill. Both of these projects are funded by Kellogg Foundation. 

Catherine is also working with Arizona’s Department of Economic Security to evaluate their use of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Stabilization funds (child care funds). This project specifically examines access to stabilization funds, how  funds were used to support the mental health of staff and children, and how the funds were used for workforce retention and recruitment.