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Teresa Derrick-Mills
Senior Fellow
Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population
  • Profile
  • Outside Affiliations
  • Why, how, and to what extent do programs and policies work? How do place and institutional structure contribute? What intended outcomes are realized, and what unintended outcomes have resulted? How do we measure program performance? I believe posing these questions is important to using resources efficiently and effectively in building a strong society. At Urban, I can draw on the interdisciplinary, multimethod expertise of my colleagues to collaboratively design strong research and evaluations that answer these questions to inform decisionmaking within nonprofit organizations and across levels of government.

    Teresa Derrick-Mills is a senior fellow in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute. She studies programs and translates research to improve implementation practice and knowledge building; studies and applies performance measurement and continuous quality improvement in an intergovernmental, cross-sector context; and seeks to understand the intersections of policy and practice, particularly in early care and education and workforce development. She recently coauthored a chapter in Nonprofits and Government: Conflict and Collaboration on the interrelationships of performance measurement for governments and nonprofits. Her current work includes translating research for practice in juvenile justice, strengthening the capacity of community action agencies to engage in evaluation, examining performance measures for employer engagement, studying child care subsidy systems, and developing apprenticeship frameworks. Before joining Urban, Derrick-Mills contributed to early childhood systems building in North Carolina through executive-level work in a nonprofit, and she spent a year in the federal government designing a new system of performance measurement for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Derrick-Mills is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University. She holds BS degrees in sociology and political science from Florida State University, an MPA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a PhD in public policy and public administration, with a specialization in program evaluation, from the George Washington University.

    Research Areas
    Education
    Nonprofits and philanthropy
    Workforce
    Families
    Social safety net
    Children and youth
    Tags
    Kids in context
    Beyond high school: education and training
    Evidence-based policy capacity
    Federal evaluation forum
    Student parents


    Outside Affiliations
    Trachtenberg School at George Washington University
    Adjunct Professor
    National Academy of Public Administration
    Serving on the Modern Social Services committee of the Center for Intergovernmental Partnerships
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    Urban experts are permitted and empowered to work and affiliate with outside organizations, whether serving on boards, volunteering their time, or providing advice and counsel. And Urban welcomes visiting scholars, nonresident or affiliated fellows who work for other organizations. These outside affiliations enrich our perspectives and our learning environment. We also require all paid and unpaid experts to disclose their affiliations to Urban leadership and follow rules governing their engagement to ensure transparency for audiences and independence of experts.