Pairing nurses and social workers in schools: North Carolina's school-based Child and Family Support Teams.

Beth Gifford is a research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, a core faculty member of the Center for Child and Family Policy and the Margolis Center for Health Policy. She leads a multidisciplinary research team that examines the health and social services engagement of children and families. Motivating her research is the need to understand how social policies and practices can better support children and families. Her work spans many public institutions including education, social services, criminal justice, and health care systems. She is the Director of the Health Policy Certificate Program and the Health Policy and Innovation Theme Leader for Bass Connections.

Leslie Babinski is an associate research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy and director of the Duke School Research Partnership.

Dr. Babinski is principal investigator for a study funded by the Institute for Education Sciences to examine a new model for professional development for ESL and classroom teachers. The goals of the study, Efficacy of the DCCS Program: ESL and Classroom Teachers Working Together with Students and Families, are to support collaboration between the ESL and classroom teachers as well as increase teachers’ implementation of high-impact instructional strategies and students’ cultural wealth to facilitate language and literacy skills for English Learners.

She is co-PI for another IES-funded study, The Targeted Reading Intervention: Investigating the Efficacy of a Web-Based Early Reading Intervention Professional Development Program for K-1 English Learners is in collaboration with Steve Amendum at the University of Delaware and Lynne Vernon-Feagans at UNC Chapel Hill.

She is also collaborating with Dr. Desiree Murray from UNC Chapel Hill on an IES study called Promoting Self-Regulation to Enhance Social, Behavioral, and Academic Adjustment in Middle School.