The John R. Lutzker Lecture Series
Building Multi-Sector Partnerships for Promoting Community Wide Engagement in Evidence-Based Prevention:
It Takes More than a Village
Achieving population-level outcomes in health and education is a worthy but often unmet goal in communities. While knowledge about evidence-based practices to achieve population-level outcomes is often available, translating this information to reach population-level outcomes is still a distant goal. For example, the science is clear about what all new parents need to do to create rich language learning environments for their children, yet this knowledge often fails to reach low-income families. This presentation will focus on creating community-wide multi-sector intervention to address income-related disparity in children’s early language experience. It will describe city-wide initiatives to promote nurturing language environments for young children in high-poverty communities and identify strategies that have been employed for strengthening and evaluating collaborative partnerships. The presentation will conclude with the promise these strategies offer for promoting community-wide engagement and making a difference in the lives of families and children.
Dr. Judith Carta is the Associate Director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas, and a Senior Scientist in the Institute for Life Span Studies. Her science focuses on developing strategies to minimize the effects of poverty on children’s language and social outcomes and developing practices that teachers and parents can use to promote children’s early learning particularly in vulnerable populations.
Her current research and policy interests include creating multi-sector community-wide interventions for advancing the quality of children’s caregiving environments, and scaling up tiered approaches for enhancing all children’s learning and development. She has been the Principal Investigator of several multi-site research projects and centers funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Educational Sciences, and the Administration on Children and Families. She currently co-directs the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network, a collaborative of 200 researchers, practitioners, civic leaders and policymakers seeking to enrich young children’s language learning environments. She serves on many federal advisory panels, commissions and the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. She was the recipient of the 2016 Youngberg Research Award given each year to recognize an individual whose applied research has had significant impact and relevance to the state of Kansas.
About the Lecture Series
The John R. Lutzker Lecture Series was created to advance understanding of public health solutions that reduce violence and promote healthy development and well-being of children, youth, and families.
The series is named in honor of Dr. John R. Lutzker, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founding director of the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development at Georgia State University. Dr. Lutzker is an internationally recognized scholar who dedicated his career to championing the prevention of child maltreatment. He created SafeCare®, one of the few evidence-based programs to prevent child abuse and neglect. With the support of an anonymous donor, the School of Public Health sponsors the annual Lutzker Lecture Series. Read more.
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Previous Lectures
The 2019 John R. Lutzker Lecture featured Dr. Judith Carta, presenting on “Building Multi-Sector Partnerships for Promoting Community Wide Engagement in Evidence-Based Prevention: It Takes More than a Village.” Dr. Carta is the associate director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas, and a Senior Scientist in the Institute for Life Span Studies. Her science focuses on developing strategies to minimize the effects of poverty on children’s language and social outcomes and developing practices that teachers and parents can use to promote children’s early learning particularly in vulnerable populations.
The Inaugural John R. Lutzker Lecture featured preeminent scholar, Dr. Gregory Aarons, presenting on “Evidence-Based Practice Implementation and Sustainment through Leadership and Partnership.” Dr. Aarons, director of the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center at the University of California San Diego, is a clinical and organizational psychologist and professor of Psychiatry. He conducts research on improving systems and organizational factors that support implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practice, use of research evidence, and quality of care. His research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and W.T. Grant Foundation.
