Janelle Williams to Manage Evaluation, Research and Operations

Janelle Williams was no stranger to the work of the Atlanta Civic Site when she came on board last fall. For more than four years, she led efforts to incor­po­rate data analy­sis and eval­u­a­tion into its pro­gram design and imple­men­ta­tion and to pro­mote poli­cies that sup­port under­served fam­i­lies at The Cen­ter for Work­ing Fam­i­lies, Inc. — a com­mu­ni­ty-based ser­vice provider that helps adults work toward eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty. She also direct­ed the inte­gra­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of best prac­tices that align with the orga­ni­za­tion’s strate­gic and oper­a­tional plans.

In her new role, Williams will work with staff, res­i­dents and oth­er part­ners and stake­hold­ers to address the needs of the chil­dren, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. She will coor­di­nate and man­age assess­ment, research and eval­u­a­tion efforts to ensure the Civic Site pro­grams are achiev­ing their intend­ed results. She also will devel­op col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships to advance strate­gies and goals that sup­port fam­i­lies in NPU–V.

Williams has exten­sive research expe­ri­ence in an array of socioe­co­nom­ic and inter­na­tion­al issues. Before com­ing to The Cen­ter for Work­ing Fam­i­lies, Inc., she helped assess the statewide imple­men­ta­tion of the Read­ing First cur­ricu­lum in kinder­garten through third grade at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia. Williams also served as a con­gres­sion­al fel­low in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, con­duct­ing pol­i­cy research and analy­sis on issues tied to edu­ca­tion, health, work­force devel­op­ment and immi­gra­tion. As a fel­low, she was part of a team that draft­ed fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion that was unan­i­mous­ly adopt­ed as an amend­ment to the Col­lege Oppor­tu­ni­ty and Afford­abil­i­ty Act to pro­mote a com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tered approach to deter­ring gang vio­lence and reduc­ing recidi­vism rates among for­mer juve­nile offend­ers. Williams earned a mas­ter’s in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia, as well as a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in psy­chol­o­gy and Bach­e­lor of Arts in soci­ol­o­gy from Flori­da Memo­r­i­al Uni­ver­si­ty, where she was valedictorian.