Laura Packard Tucker is a principal research associate in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute. She is committed to improving the ways communities and government come together to support children, young people, and families. Her research focuses on child welfare and public programs that support the well-being of children and families, with an emphasis on administrative data analysis, performance measurement, continuous quality improvement (CQI), and program evaluation. Packard Tucker also has extensive experience building the research capacity of the human services workforce, concentrating on best measurement practices, theories of change, evaluation strategies, program improvement, and CQI processes. Before joining Urban, she was a researcher at the Chapin Hall Center for Children, where she examined states’ child welfare outcomes, analyzed policy fiscal effects, and developed administrative data to support program implementation. Packard Tucker holds an MS in financial analysis from Portland State University.