Elizabeth Snyder-Fickler

Elizabeth Snyder-Fickler
Research Scientist, Senior

Liz Snyder-Fickler is trained as a research psychologist with a concentration in cognitive development. Her work focuses on conducting rigorous community-based research and evaluation. Centered on vulnerable children and families and the systems that serve them, her research broadly spans the areas of child welfare, early childhood and elementary education, and children's mental health. Research interests include design, implementation and analysis of interventions, and the use of actionable data to improve practice and policy within these human service settings. She has led several federally, state and locally funded evaluations, including:

Child Welfare

Establishing a Definition of Child Well-Being and Developing a Program-Specific Intervention and Evaluation Plan to Measure Outcomes (Children's Home Society of North Carolina)
Evaluation of the Durham Integrated Domestic Violence Response System
Evaluation of a comprehensive family assessment process to improve child welfare outcomes in Alamance County, N.C.
The evaluation of a system of care infrastructure grant awarded by the Children's Bureau to the North Carolina Division of Social Services. Implemented within Alamance, Bladen, and Mecklenburg counties, the evaluation examined whether an interagency System of Care (SOC) could achieve positive outcomes for children and families involved with child protective services.

Children's Mental Health

Reducing the Need for Out-of-home Placements: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Examine the Effects of Family Centered Treatment on Well-Being Outcomes and Public Dollar Costs

BECOMING, a SAMHSA-funded System of Care Child Mental Health Initiative serving transition-age youth (16-21) with mental health challenges in Durham, North Carolina.

Early Childhood and Elementary Education

The evaluation of the East Durham Children’s Initiative
Evaluation of the East Durham Learning Collaborative
Impacts of the Book Babies Home Visiting Program on Early Literacy and School Readiness: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Durham and Winston-Salem, NC

Dr. Snyder-Fickler has also served as a consultant for grantees of the Oak Foundation Learning Differences program within the areas of capacity building and evaluation. Her work on this project focused on providing technical assistance to grantees to enhance their infrastructure and ensure they have the data needed to perform a strong evaluation.

Prior to coming to the Center, Liz was a post-doctoral fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During that time her research and training experiences involved both the Carolina Interdisciplinary Large-Scale Policy Research Training and the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study.

Current Research Interests

Program Evaluation
Education
Child Maltreatment
Children's Mental Health

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Research Scientist, Senior, Center for Child and Family Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy

Contact Information

2024 W Main St, Rm C220, Durham, NC 27710
liz.snyder@duke.edu +1 919 668 3288

Research
Selected Grants
- Randomized Control Trial of FCT awarded by Family Centered Treatment Foundation 2018 - 2023
- Books on Break awarded by Book Harvest 2018 - 2020
- East Durham Children's Initiative (ECDI) awarded by East Durham Children's Initiative 2011 - 2019
- Imprints Cares - Book Babies awarded by Book Harvest 2018
- Book Babies RCT awarded by Book Harvest 2016 - 2018
- The Durham Integrated Domestic Violence Response System awarded by Durham County Department of Social Services 2016 - 2018
- North Carolina Child Well-Being awarded by Children's Home Society of North Carolina 2017 - 2018
- A Foundation-University Partnership: Collaborating for Non-profit Capacity Building and Infrastructure Enhancement awarded by Oak Foundation 2013 - 2017
- Book Babies awarded by Book Harvest 2015 - 2017
- Design a Randomized-Control Trial (RCT) of the Family Centered Treatment Intervention awarded by Family Centered Treatment Foundation 2016 - 2017
- Child Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) awarded by Alliance Behavioral Healthcare 2010 - 2016
- Proposal for a Comprehensive Examination of Child Welfare Assessment Tools awarded by Annie E. Casey Foundation 2014 - 2015
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Journal Articles
  - Rosanbalm, KD, Snyder, EH, Lawrence, CN, Coleman, K, Frey, JJ, van den Ende, JB, and Dodge, KA. "Child wellbeing assessment in child welfare: A review of four measures." Children and Youth Services Review 68 (September 2016): 1-16. Full Text
  - Snyder, EH, Lawrence, CN, Weatherholt, TN, and Nagy, P. "The benefits of motivational interviewing and coaching for improving the practice of comprehensive family assessments in child welfare." Child welfare 91, no. 5 (January 2012): 9-36.
  - Snyder, EH, Lawrence, CN, and Dodge, KA. "The impact of system of care support in adherence to wraparound principles in Child and Family Teams in child welfare in North Carolina." Children and Youth Services Review 34, no. 4 (2012): 639-647. Full Text
  - Davis, DW, Burns, B, Snyder, E, and Robinson, J. "Attention problems in very low birth weight preschoolers: Are new screening measures needed for this special population?." Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 20, no. 2 (2007): 74-85. (Academic Article)
  - Snyder, E, Davis, DW, Burns, B, and Robinson, J. "An examination of attention networks in children born with very low birth weights." Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology 3 (2007): 185-203. (Academic Article)
  - Davis, DW, Burns, B, Snyder, E, Dossett, D, and Wilkerson, SA. "Parent-child interaction and attention regulation in children born prematurely." Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing 9 (2004): 85-94. (Academic Article)
- Other Articles
  - Snyder-Fickler, E, and Lawrence, N. "Multiple Response System and System of Care: Two policy reforms designed to improve the child welfare system." Children'S Bureau Express Online Digest 10, no. 7.
- Reports
  - Snyder-Fickler, E, Lawrence, N, and Rigdon, A. The East Durham Children's Initiative Year 6 Evaluation Report: Implementation and Outcomes. November 27, 2017.
  - Lawrence, N, Snyder-Fickler, E, and Ulrich, S. Book Babies Evaluation Pilot: Impacts on Parent and Child Interactive Reading Behaviors and Child Vocabulary and Early Literacy Skills. October 16, 2017.
  - Lawrence, N, and Snyder-Fickler, E. BECOMING Final Report: A Longitudinal Perspective on Outcomes for Transitional Age Youth with Mental Health Challenges. September 30, 2017.
  - Snyder-Fickler, E, and Lawrence, N. The East Durham Children's Initiative Year Five Evaluation Report: Implementation and Outcomes. (Unpublished) December 31, 2016.
  - Lawrence, N, Snyder-Fickler, E, and Ulrich, S. BECOMING Youth Year 3 Progress Evaluation Report. December 30, 2016.
  - Lawrence, N, Ulrich, S, and Snyder-Fickler, E. Book Babies Evaluation Pilot: Initial Findings Regarding Parent and Child Interactive Reading Behaviors. September 30, 2016.
  - Snyder-Fickler, E, and Lawrence, N. The East Durham Children’s Initiative Year 4 Evaluation: Implementation and Outcomes. December 31, 2016.
  - Rosanbalm, KD, Snyder-Fickler, L, and Lawrence, CN. A comprehensive examination of child wellbeing assessment tools for child welfare. May 2015.
  - Lawrence, N, and Snyder-Fickler, E. BECOMING: Implementation and Outcomes. October 31, 2014.
  - Snyder-Fickler, , Lawrence, , and Rosanbalm, KD. EDCI Year Three Evaluation Report. 2014.
  - Snyder-Fickler, E, Lawrence, N, Weatherholt, T, Rosanbalm, K, and Rabiner, D. The East Durham Children’s Initiative: Year two evaluation. December 31, 2014.
  - Lawrence, N, and Snyder-Fickler, E. BECOMING evaluation report: Year one implementation. October 31, 2013.
  - Snyder-Fickler, , Rosanbalm, KD, and Weatherholt, T. Comprehensive Family Assessment final report: A process, practice, and outcome evaluation. 2013.

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Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Other Articles

Reports