The Evidence-to-Impact Podcast

In this episode, host Michael Donovan, Associate Director of the Evidence to Impact Collaborative at Penn State, speaks with Bob Lamb, Director of Programs and Partnerships at Be a Part of the Conversation, and Haydn Briggs, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Group Psychotherapist, and Co-Founder of the Philadelphia Area Psychodrama Institute. Together, they explore the critical role that authentic human connection plays in recovery, healing, and family well-being.

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Michael Donovan sits down with Dale Keshishian of HealthWorks Academies and David Garbe of the McKinney Center for STEM Education at the Philadelphia Education Fund to unpack the challenges, and opportunities, of building stronger STEM pathways for young people. From early exposure and hands-on learning to representation, mentorship, and community engagement, this conversation explores what it takes to keep students engaged and help them see a future in STEM. The episode also dives into the importance of collaboration across education and industry, the need to rethink traditional career pathways, and how we can better prepare both students and educators for a rapidly evolving workforce.

This episode, host Michael Donovan, Associate Director of the Evidence to Impact Collaborative at Penn State, speaks with Dr. Stephen Sandelich, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine Penn State Health, Associate Director of Outreach PSACT and Sarah Ballard, Assistant Director of Outreach PSACT. The conversation explores the topic of substance use among adolescents, the role of stigma and privacy concerns, and how community and school-based outreach efforts are evolving to better support youth.

Part 2 is here!In this follow-up episode, we take a deeper look at the Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI). Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska (Penn State), Captain Joe Balles (retired, Madison Police Department), and Captain Diana Nachtigal (Madison Police Department) share how evidence-based outreach, peer recovery partnerships, and innovative diversion strategies are reshaping the connections between policing, addiction recovery, and community health. More information on MARI can be found here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/community/mari/

We are back! We have a discussion with Denise Holden, founder and CEO of the RASE Project, a recovery community organization that has since expanded outside of Pennsylvania and Dr. Sarah Kawasaki, the Chief of Addiction Medicine, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at Penn State Health. This episode discusses the opioid crisis, the negative stigma surrounding this, and the process of recovery.

For this month’s episode, we did something a little different. We spoke to two researchers with two different approaches to tackling the same problem: knowledge mobilization. In essence, the concept of knowledge mobilization focuses on making knowledge, resources or practices that exist in one space and making them accessible to specific audiences. We talked about the work behind SOSNetLab (Social Opportunity Space Networking Lab) and the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, barriers to this type of research and implementation, and what the future has in store for addressing this problem.We spoke to Taylor Scott, PhD., Co-Director of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration and Assistant Research Professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center at Penn State, and Alan J. Daly, PhD., SOSNetLab Chief Executive Dreamer, and Professor, University of California, San Diego as well as SOSNetLab’s full team, which includes: Mimi Lockton, Ed.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Project Catalyzer, and Doctoral Candidate at the University of California San Diego; Anita Caduff, SOSNETLAB Chief Swiss Army Knife, and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California San Diego, and Martin Rehm, Ph.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Data Wrangler, and Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Regensburg in Germany.ResourcesSOSNetLab’s WebsiteResearch-to-Policy Collaboration’s WebsiteTaylor mentions the work of Jennie Noll, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State, Director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Children, and a previous guest on this podcast; and Francesca Lopez, the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and Professor of Education at Penn State.Additionally, Taylor discusses working with the Kauffman Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation to expand their work on entrepreneurial research.SOSNet’s work is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The transcript for the episode is available here.

This month's episode discusses mental health screenings for adolescents in the K-12 school system. We spoke to Deepa Sekhar, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine, and Executive Director, Penn State PRO Wellness; Perri Rosen, PhD, NCSP, Consulting Psychologist, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Pennsylvania Dept. of Human Services, and Steve Sharp, School Counselor in the Hempfield School District, and K-12 School Counseling Coordinator for the Hempfield School District about why having mental health screenings (or mood screenings) in K-12 schools makes a difference when helping children who might be struggling and getting them the resources that they need to succeed.Episode Resources and ReferencesThe SHIELD study is mentioned several times throughout the episode. SHIELD stands for Screening in High Schools to Identify, Evaluate and Lower Depression.The Student Assistance Program (SAP) is a systematic team process used to mobilize school resources to remove barriers to learning. SAP is designed to assist in identifying issues including alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and mental health issues which pose a barrier to a student’s success.Steve mentions receiving a school safety grant through Pennsylvania Commission and Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). He also mentions getting an ESSER grant through the Department of Education.Deepa discusses the SHIELD study receiving funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.Steve mentions using MTSS teams, which stands for multi-tiered systems of supports.Lastly, Steven talks about the CAMS Model (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality), which is a therapeutic framework for suicide-specific assessment and treatment of a patient’s suicidal risk.

We're back for our third season! Kicking off the 2022 season, we explore the juvenile justice system in Pennsylvania.We spoke to Megan Kurlychek, Professor of Sociology, Criminology and Public Policy and Associate Director of the Criminal Justice Research Center at Penn State, and Rick Steele, Executive Director of the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission at the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, about their work in the juvenile justice field, the history of the juvenile justice system, prevention programs, the issue of recidivism, and more.Episode Resources and NotesMegan mentions that she began her career working at the National Center for Juvenile Justice, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Both Rick and Megan discuss the concept of parens patriae. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law, parens patriae is Latin for "parent of the people." Under parens patriae, a state or court has a paternal and protective role over its citizens or others subject to its jurisdiction.Megan discusses the court case, In re Gault, as one of the landmark Supreme Court cases that changed how juvenile justice was approached back in the 1960s.Rick refers to the MAYSI-2, the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument – Second Version, when mentioning how behavioral health and substance use issues are assessed among justice-involved youth.Additionally, Rick discusses how the Pennsylvania Commonwealth has incorporated the University of Cincinnati's EPICS, Effective Practices in Community Supervision, into their probation model.Rick mentions using a standardized program evaluation protocol based on the work by Mark Lipsey, Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.Megan mentions a prevention program that partners nurses with young mothers called the Nurse-Family Partnership.The School-to-Prison Pipeline is something that both Megan and Rick discuss as it relates to prevention research and programming.Megan talks about risk need assessments for assessing justice-involved youth. More information is available here.Rick discusses the Models for Change program, which helped to advance reforms to make juvenile justice systems more fair, effective, rational, and developmentally appropriate. He also mentions the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, which is nationally renowned.JCJC's reports are available online for anyone interested in reading more about their work.Rick talks about working with other researchers in the field such as Gina Vincent, Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Keith Cruise from Fordham University, and Edward Mulvey, Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine.Megan mentions her book, The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, which she co-wrote with Tom Bernard, Ph.D. back in 2010.The transcript for the episode is available here.

In this month’s episode, we tackled innovations in healthcare. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen a focus on various healthcare innovations and technology like artificial intelligence, cloud-enabled solutions, and inpatient telehealth, but other innovations are important, too. Some of these focused on in Pennsylvania include how we can get more value out of the country’s healthcare system without sacrificing the quality of care and lowering barriers for underserved populations.We spoke to Dr. Doug Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer in the Office of the Secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and Meg Small, Ph.D., Director of Social Innovation and Assistant Research Professor at the Penn State Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, about what it means to have a healthcare system that pays for value, promotes health equity and addresses the social determinants of health; measuring the success of healthcare innovation; healthcare innovations involving mobile technology; and other improvements to expanding access while reducing healthcare costs.Episode Resources and NotesFor more information about DHS’s efforts on healthcare innovation, visit this page.In response to a question about how health equity frames prevention science, Meg brings up a collaboration project with a woman named Lavelle Smith Hall, an entrepreneur and founder of a company called MOMLogics. MOMLogics serves Black moms and empowers them with parenting strategies so they can enjoy better relationships with their children, spouses, and families.Meg discusses a program called Museums for All that allows families and children receiving food assistance (SNAP benefits) free or reduced admission to over 700 museums throughout the United States simply by presenting their EBT card.Meg mentions the research of Karen Bierman, Ph.D., Evan Pugh Professor, Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies, and Director of the Child Study Center at Penn State. For more of her work, visit Karen’s Google Scholar page.Meg mentions Penn State faculty affiliate and pediatrician, Laura Jana, M.D., and her work on adopting reach out and read programs into early learning centers. More information about Laura can be found here.Doug refers to a healthcare system in Pennsylvania that has a “fresh food pharmacy” where physicians can prescribe fresh food for families.Meg references The Common Good by Robert Reich.The transcript for this episode is available here.

For this month's episode, we explore a topic that we have wanted to cover for some time: unemployment and the pandemic labor market. As the nation begins to "reopen" and the economy begins shifting, many states have begun ending pandemic-era unemployment insurance benefits. For many, unemployment insurance was the only thing keeping them afloat following the unprecedented unemployment crisis at the beginning of the pandemic. And yet, despite the unbelievable numbers of unemployed workers in our country, the stigma of receiving unemployment insurance persists. We asked ourselves why, in a time of tremendous health and economic crisis, are we giving folks who need help a hard time? We know that research shows that many families and individuals are still out of work and struggling to afford adequate food and pay mortgages or rent. Like other topics we covered - childcare and food insecurity, for example - the pandemic has made it abundantly clear that our country's systems are unsustainable and not enough to support the financial needs of families and individuals. To debunk some of the concerns and myths of unemployment and dive into the shifting economy, we spoke to Sarah Damaske, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Sociology and Women's Studies at Penn State and Associate Director of the Population Research Institute (PRI), and Mark Price, Ph.D., Associate Director of Research at the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). We discussed the stigma of experiencing unemployment or receiving unemployment insurance, how and why men and women experience unemployment differently, wage stagnation in the education sector, and more. We encourage listeners to also check out Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America. While it is not required reading for this episode, it does paint a picture of pre-pandemic unemployment and provides salient policy recommendations to our unemployment system. Episode Resources and Notes Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, is out now. Buy it through Princeton University Press or on Amazon. Sarah and Mark mention the work of Kathryn Edwards, an economist at the Rand Corporation. Sarah mentions the Great Depression-era photographs by Dorothea Lange as inspiration for her book. You can find more of Dorothea Lange's work here. The transcript for this episode is available here.

This month, we return to our Pandemic Perspective series and explore the state of the childcare system in Pennsylvania during the pandemic. We discuss the challenges and opportunities to funding, access, and quality for the childcare system. We spoke to Karen Grimm-Thomas, Director of External Relations at the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), and Philip Sirinides, Associate Professor of Education in the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education and Director of the Institute of State and Regional Affairs (ISRA) at Penn State Harrisburg, about the impact that the pandemic has had on childcare providers and families throughout Pennsylvania. OCDEL is a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services that focuses on creating opportunities for the commonwealth's youngest citizens to develop and learn to their fullest potential. The Institute of State and Regional Affairs leverages Penn State's unbiased data expertise and the resources to provide multifaceted data and research support services to partners in government and the private sector. Episode Resources ISRA's Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania Child Care ISRA's Report on the Cost of Childcare in Pennsylvania Breakdown About OCDEL's COVID-19 Funding The transcript for this episode is available here.

This month's episodes feature everything but the kitchen sink! We're tackling how government, primarily at the local and state levels, transitioned to remote work, unemployment and the recession, the messaging behind school closings/mask wearing, the 2020 Election, COVID-19 vaccines distribution, and everything in between. As part of our new series, The Pandemic Perspective, we spoke with Commissioner Mike Pipe, Centre County Chair of the Board of Commissioners and Co-Chair of the Election Board of Centre County, and Dr. Chris Witko, Associate Director of the School of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Penn State University. This episode is the second episode of a two-part episode about this topic. Listen to Part 1 here. Please note that this episode was recorded in early December 2020. Resources/Additional Links for this Episode Business Insider: Unemployment surged to 14.7% in April as the US lost a record 20.5 million jobs U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Ability to work from home: evidence from two surveys and implications for the labor market in the COVID-19 pandemic ProPublica: What Coronavirus Job Losses Reveal About Racism in America NPR: Pandemic Forces More Women To Leave The Workforce Pew Research Center: Economic Fallout From COVID-19 Continues To Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest Newsy/Ipsos: Newsy/Ipsos Poll Finds Broad Support For National Mask Mandate Pew Research Center: More Americans say they are regularly wearing masks in stores and other businesses The Hill: Restaurant group calls on governors to make closing indoor dining 'a last option' WITF: The dispute over the Wolf administration’s handling of coronavirus in nursing homes, explained New York Times: More Than One-Third of U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Linked to Nursing Homes The Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative Podcast's new series, The Pandemic Perspective, examines how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects of our society, institutions, and other systems have collided, changed, and even collapsed in the last nine months. The transcript for this episode is available here.

The Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative Podcast is offering a new series called The Pandemic Perspective, where we examine how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects of our society, institutions, and other systems have collided, changed, and even collapsed in the last nine months. For the first episode of this series, we spoke with three experts about how the delivery of educational services for children with disabilities and the greater education system has changed since the beginning of the year, as well as how we can incorporate lessons learned into the future. The discussion stems from a May 2020 blog post from the Social Science Research Institute’s “Insights from the Experts” COVID-19 blog series. Our guests include Carole Clancy, Director of the Bureau of Special Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education; Paul Morgan, Professor of Education and Demography in the Department of Education Policy Studies and Director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research (CEDR) at Penn State; and Adrienne Woods, CEDR Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Education Policy Studies at Penn State. Resources for Teachers, Families, and School Administrators Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Bureau of Special Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) Council for Exceptional Children National Center for Learning Disabilities Transcript for the episode is available here.