About MDRC
Lundquist has several years of experience evaluating social programs and policies. She has served in data-management, impact-analysis, and project-management roles in several projects, including the Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies, the Employment Retention and Advancement project, the Supporting Healthy Marriage project, and a study of microlending in the United States. Lundquist has also worked on the design of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE), and led the component of that evaluation focused on analyzing state needs assessments and plans. Currently Lundquist is serving as the lead data manager for the Building Bridges and Bonds project. Before coming to MDRC, she received her master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University.
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MDRC Publications
ReportEarly Findings on the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program — A Report to Congress
January, 2015This report presents the first findings from MIHOPE, the legislatively mandated national evaluation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program. It includes an analysis of the states’ needs assessments, as well as baseline characteristics of families, staff, local programs, and models participating in the study.
ReportFinal Impacts from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation
January, 2014Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) was a yearlong voluntary marriage education program to help strengthen couples’ relationships. SHM had small sustained positive effects on marital quality more than a year after the program ended but did not achieve its objectives of leading more couples to stay together or improving children’s well-being.
ReportApril, 2013Home visiting programs seek to improve maternal and child outcomes by supporting families with young children. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 included $1.5 billion for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, with a national evaluation required. This report describes the design of that evaluation.
ReportFebruary, 2012This report, which presents 12-month impact results from a demonstration designed to strengthen marriages among low-income married couples with children, shows that the program produced a consistent pattern of small, positive effects on multiple aspects of couples’ relationships, including measures of relationship quality, psychological and physical abuse, and adult individual psychological distress.
ReportUsing Earnings Supplements to Improve Employment Retention and Advancement Programs in Texas and the United Kingdom
September, 2010Although much is known about how to help welfare recipients find jobs, there is less hard evidence about what can be done to help current and former recipients and other low-wage workers stay employed or advance in the labor market. This paper looks closely at one strategy — providing earnings supplements, or stipends, to current and former welfare recipients who maintain stable full-time employment — that was used at sites in Texas and in the United Kingdom.
ReportSeptember, 2010This report seeks to answer two policy questions: whether providing subsidies to families whose incomes are just over the state’s eligibility limit affects their child care and employment outcomes, and whether extending the length of time before families must reapply for subsidies affects the receipt of subsidies and related outcomes.
ReportFinal Impacts for Twelve Models
April, 2010This report presents the final implementation and impact findings for 12 programs in the national Employment Retention and Advancement project, sponsored by the federal Administration for Children and Families. These programs attempted to promote steady work and career advancement for current and former welfare recipients and other low-wage workers, most of whom were single mothers.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Charles Michalopoulos, Dina A. R. Israel, Michelle S. Manno, Emily Brennan, Emily Marano, Oscar Cerna, Donna Wharton-Fields, Erika Lundquist, Ann Bickerton, Rekha Balu, Rebecca BehrmannSince 2006, Responsible Fatherhood programs across the country have received federal funding administered by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These programs aim to promote positive father-child interactions, improve parents’ relationship with each other and their capacity...
Richard Hendra, Barbara S. Goldman, Stephanie Rubino, Kristin Porter, Erika Lundquist, Alexandra Pennington, Stephen Freedman, David Navarro, Melissa WaveletTANF Data Innovation ( TDI ) is a new national initiative to support Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) agencies as they harness the full potential of using administrative records data to improve program administration, payment integrity, and outcomes for low-income families. Launched in 2017, TDI is sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research, and...
Dina A. R. Israel, Michelle S. Manno, Dan Bloom, JoAnn Hsueh, Rekha Balu, Charles Michalopoulos, Virginia Knox, Erika Lundquist, Electra Small, Rebecca Behrmann, Samantha Wulfsohn, Ann Bickerton, Douglas Phillips, Patrizia Mancini, Emily Brennan, Jillian Verrillo, Bret BardenFathers play a unique role in their children’s lives and development, but some fathers face personal or societal barriers to positive involvement with their children — such as low levels of education, stigma from criminal records, declining wages for low-skilled men, or family instability. Responsible Fatherhood programs aim to improve the well-being of low-income...
Payday loans are short-term loans geared toward working-class and lower middle-class households that possess access to bank accounts and can prove sustained employment. People may use them and other alternative credit instruments to deal with unexpected expenses or simply to make ends meet between paychecks. While the loans are expensive, they may be one of the only...
Virginia Knox, Charles Michalopoulos, Sharon Rowser, JoAnn Hsueh, Helen Lee, Desiree Principe Alderson, Dina A. R. Israel, Erika Lundquist, Kristin Porter, Electra Small, Rebecca Behrmann, Anne Warren, Samantha Xia, Kelly Saunders, Ilana Blum, Jessica Kopsic, Noemi Altman, Caroline MageAdverse birth outcomes result in significant emotional and economic costs for families and communities. One promising avenue for helping expectant women is home visiting programs, which work with parents to promote prenatal care and improve infant health. The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start ( MIHOPE -Strong Start) will evaluate the...
Virginia Knox, Charles Michalopoulos, Sharon Rowser, JoAnn Hsueh, Helen Lee, Desiree Principe Alderson, Dina A. R. Israel, Erika Lundquist, Kristin Porter, Electra Small, Carolyn Hill, Rebecca Behrmann, Ximena Portilla, Anne Warren, Samantha Xia, Kelly Saunders, Ilana Blum, Mojgan RastegarHome visiting programs operate around the country to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 authorized the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting ( MIECHV ) program, expanding federal funding of home visiting programs....
Home visiting has grown in recent decades as a strategy for providing preventive services to families with young children. Federal, state, local, and private funders have supported programs operating in thousands of communities around the country. Several programs are widely disseminated in the United States, with different programs focusing on slightly different...
Richard Hendra, Cynthia Miller, Susan Scrivener, Stephen Freedman, Frieda Molina, Jocelyn Page, David Navarro, Barbara S. Goldman, Dan Bloom, John Martinez, Mark van Dok, Victoria Deitch, Alexandra Pennington, Erika Lundquist, Edith YangThe federal welfare overhaul of 1996 ushered in myriad policy changes aimed at getting low-income parents off public assistance and into employment. These changes — especially cash welfare’s transformation from an entitlement into a time-limited benefit contingent on work participation — have intensified the need to help low-income families become economically self-...
Investments in child care by the federal government and individual states grew substantially in the years after passage of the 1996 federal welfare reform law, increasing from $3.6 billion in 1996 to $11.4 billion in 2005. As a result, many more low-income families with working parents were able to receive help in paying for child care. Yet the effectiveness of...
JoAnn Hsueh, Virginia Knox, Desiree Principe Alderson, Barbara S. Goldman, Erika Lundquist, Charles Michalopoulos, Jocelyn Page, Sharon Rowser, Electra Small, Helen Lee, Kristen Faucetta , Meghan McCormick, Noemi AltmanThe Supporting Healthy Marriage project is the first large-scale, multisite, multiyear, rigorous test of marriage education programs for low-income married couples. Supported by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ), the project is motivated by research that indicates that married adults...