Kristin O’Connor
Senior Policy Analyst
Kristin O’Connor is a Senior Policy Analyst at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. At Chapin, O’Connor works with a collaborative and integrated research and policy team of experts in efforts to build implementation capacity of child welfare systems to improve safety, permanency and well-being outcomes for children and families. O’Connor applies change management and implementation frameworks to support child welfare leaders and teams in identifying priority outcomes and strategies to improve performance, strengthen capacity for implementation, and reinforce local regulation of effective implementation performance and sustainment. Her expertise includes readiness assessment and implementation capacity building, child maltreatment prevention planning and partnership development.
Prior to joining Chapin Hall, O’Connor was a State and Territory Services Liaison at the Capacity Building Center for States, the technical assistance provider of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau. In this role, O’Connor provided capacity building implementation technical assistance to public child welfare agencies and professionals to strengthen, implement, and sustain effective child welfare practice and achieve better outcomes for children, youth, and families. Prior to this, she was the Chief of Child Welfare Policy and Programs at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services. O’Connor led the implementation of all child welfare programs, services and policies along the continuum of primary prevention to post-permanency and directed investments and strategies related to evidence-based program and policy implementation within and across North Carolina’s child welfare system. O’Connor’s experience spans 25 years in leadership roles in the public and private human services sectors.
O’Connor holds a Master of Education in Prevention Science and Practice from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University.
Master of Education in Prevention Science and Practice, Harvard University
Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Northeastern University
Sandoval-Lyn, M., Cruce, A., O’Connor, K., Allen-Eckard, K., Dempsey, T., Pilarski, G., Hebert, L., & Surgento, J. (2021). Assessing agency and family readiness for family engagement. Presentation to Family Leaders in Child Welfare Constituency Group, Capacity Building Center for States
Benefiel, J., & O’Connor, K. (2020). Change and implementation readiness. Consultant Training Institute, Capacity Building Center for States.
Aldridge, W. A., II, & O’Connor, K. (2020). The Role of implementation science at multiple levels of the North Carolina Triple P scale-up, USA. In S. van Driel (Chair), Seven years in. . .: Building Triple P across the state of North Carolina [Conference symposium]. Helping Families Change Conference, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Mahoney, K., Armstrong, J., & O’Connor, K. (2020). In W. A. Aldridge, II (Moderator), Creating systems of support for statewide Triple P scale-up: Key themes, capacity data, and lessons learned from the Carolinas, United States [Conference roundtable]. Helping Families Change Conference, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Aldridge, W. A., II., & O’Connor, K. (2019). Supporting successful Triple P scale-up in North Carolina. In K. O’Connor (Chair), North Carolina’s scaling of Triple P into CPS in-home services. Invited presentation for the quarterly meeting of the State Directors of County Administered States, sponsored by Casey Family Programs, Raleigh, NC.
Tyson, M., O’Connor, K., Aldridge, W. A., II., & Hirsch, S. (2019). Triple P (Positive Parenting Program): A population approach to reducing child maltreatment and increasing positive parenting. Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC) Learning & Leadership Summit, Raleigh, NC, United States.
O’Connor, K. (2018). Investing in effective community-based child abuse prevention: Scaling Triple P in North Carolina. Invited presentation in J. Noll (Chair), Preventing Child Maltreatment through Coordinated, Community-based Strategies: The Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act. U.S. Congressional briefing, Washington, DC.
O’Connor, K. (2018). State Highlight: North Carolina. In Annie E. Casey Foundation (Chair), Funding and Sustaining Evidence-Based Programs in Child Welfare Systems, Blueprints Conference, Denver, CO.
O’Connor, K. (2018). State Highlight: North Carolina. Invited presentation, Leading with Evidence Webinar, Funding and Sustaining Evidence-Based Programs in Child Welfare Systems, sponsored by Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Allen-Eckard, K., O’Connor, K., & Moore, D. (2017). Starting from the top: Developing a state level child welfare family advisory council. 2017 International Conference on Innovations in Family Engagement, Vail, CO.
Ake, G., Stewart, J., Duncan, D., Sullivan, K., Gerber, D., Preisler, J., & O’Connor, K. (2018, March). Implementation of statewide trauma screening in child welfare: North Carolina Project Broadcast. In A. Tunno & H. Pane-Seifert (Co-Chairs), Efforts to promote effective implementation of best practices in trauma-informed care for children: Screening, assessment, and evidence-based treatment. Symposium conducted at the 31st Annual Research and Policy Conference: Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Behavioral Health, Tampa, FL.
Carvill, K. M. (1998). “Fear and Courage: Interpretations from Beyond a Life Half-Lived.” In M.J. Nakkula and S.M. Ravich, Matters of Interpretation: Reciprocal Transformation in Therapeutic and Developmental Relationships with Youth. San Francisco, C.A.: Jossey-Bass.
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