Caryn Sabourin Ward, Ph.D., is on the leadership team for the Region 7 Comprehensive Center (R7CC) and provides support for the use of implementation science methods and tools in the delivery of technical assistance and capacity building services by the R7CC staff. Dr. Ward also is the associate director for education and measurement of the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At NIRN, she is the director of the State Implementation and Scaling-up of Evidence Based Practices Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs.
Dr. Ward has extensive experience in leading and developing infrastructure and capacity development with state and local education agencies as well as early childhood programs nationally. Within NIRN, she leads the development of implementation capacity measures and fidelity measures for use within education as well as other disciplines. Dr. Ward has served in a leadership role for the National Center for School Turnaround and currently serves on the advisory board of the National School Climate Center and research council for Communities in Schools in North Carolina.
EDUCATION: Ph.D. in school psychology from North Carolina State University; M.A. in experimental psychology from University of North Carolina at Wilmington; B.A. in psychology from University of Pennsylvania
AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Implementation science: System change: Multi-tiered systems of support; and Measurement development
