Evaluation of a Public Awareness Campaign to Prevent High School Dropout

Leslie Babinski is a research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy and director of the Duke School Research Partnership. She earned her doctorate in Educational and School Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has extensive experience partnering with schools, districts, community organizations, and nonprofit organizations to improve educational opportunities for children and families.

Dr. Babinski’s work focuses on developing, testing, and scaling evidence-based programs that support early literacy. At Duke, she has led rigorous randomized controlled trials of the Bridging English Language Learning and Academics (BELLA) Professional Learning Program, demonstrating positive impacts on early literacy outcomes for multilingual learners. She also directs Building Bridges through Stories, a digital storybook project that enables multilingual students and their families to co-create curriculum-connected storybooks in their home languages.

Her work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education and Bukhman Philanthropies and has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and practitioner-focused publications. Across her work, Dr. Babinski is committed to translating research into practical tools, professional learning, and instructional supports that benefit educators, district leaders, students, and families.

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 Institute 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 Undergraduate Health Policy Certificate Program and the Health Policy and Innovation Theme Leader for Bass Connections.