Celebrating CEED Research Fellow Alum, Dr. Amber B. Sansbury-Scott: A Journey in Policy Research for Black Children, Teachers, and Families
With a strong familial interest in policy, Bachelor’s of interdisciplinary studies degree (Middle East Studies concentration) from Georgia State University, and work experience with political campaigns, Dr. Amber B. Sansbury-Scott demonstrates a strong passion for understanding how policy decisions impact young children and families. Additionally, her past work with human service advocacy organizations is where she discovered her interest in the early childhood education field, specifically finding ways to develop policy “that supports teachers but also is representative and responsive to the needs of families.” After this experience, Dr. Sansbury-Scott began working more closely with families and teachers, where she listened to their voices and strived to enact change in partnership.
Given her experiences in the field, Dr. Sansbury-Scott decided to pursue a doctoral degree in Education with a concentration in Early Care & Education Policy at George Mason University (GMU), where she found the perfect fit. Dr. Sansbury's research interests include early care and education (ECE) policies related to childcare decision-making and family engagement vis-à-vis community-based participatory approaches to rigorous qualitative methodologies in ECE policy development, implementation, and iterative improvement of programs. Her 2023-24 Head Start Dissertation Grant funded study showed that relationships between African American parents and African American ECE teachers can be strengthened by shared cultural values across ecological contexts to improve young children’s social and emotional skills and family-school partnerships. During her time at GMU, she also held many titles, including her time as a Predoctoral Fellow in the Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race (RISER) Network. “The RISER program was a such a point of connection,” she explained, “at the time, I had never been in a space with so many Black women who are leading in my field of policy.”
Following the completion of her RISER Predoctoral Fellowship in July 2022 Dr. Sansbury-Scott began working at Boston University’s Center on the Ecology of Early Development (CEED) on the Centering Parent Voice (CPV) Project*, which perfectly aligned with both her experiences and interests.
“I love conducting research. I love evaluation. I love thinking about big issues and trying to understand how policy can be an entry point for various people, whether families, researchers, community folks, and everyone to be a part of the process and reimagining childcare.”
The CPV Project was in collaboration with the Center for Evaluation Innovation (CEI), where CEED and CEI both evaluated the work of several parent-led advocacy organizations across nine states. Through the evaluation, the research team focused on five states and conducted parent, funder, and state-level advocate interviews to determine how parent voice was being implemented in advocacy efforts, as well as how the context of the state and conditions for advocacy impacted centering parent voice.
After the CPV project was complete, she joined CEED’s Reimagining Childcare (RCC) Research Study*, which complemented her interests. The RCC Research Study is another evaluation that examines the work of ten grantee organizations. Specifically, this study aims to determine how the grantees centered families and children who are racially or economically marginalized, developed advocacy practices that uprooted sexism and racism, advanced the narrative of caregivers, and uplifted the dignity and aspirations of family childcare providers.
Leaning into her passion for qualitative methodologies, Dr. Sansbury-Scott co-led the coding process among a large research team for the RCC Study. She critically walked through each step with the team and promoted rigor in analytic procedures, multiple waves of coding, and establishment of themes in interpretation of findings. Reflecting on this process, Dr. Sansbury-Scott recalled, “I love coding with other people. I love the thinking processes that are collaborative.”. Relationship-building is important to her in many ways, and she was able to bring that advanced qualitative expertise into her work on the RCC team.
The skills, relationships, and insights that Dr. Sansbury-Scott contributed at CEED will continue to make an impact across our organization, even as she transitioned to a new, impactful role in August 2024. After she obtained her doctoral degree in Summer of 2024, she earned a prestigious position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) as a 2024 – 2026 National Policy Fellow. Her current role is in-residence within the Division of Data and Improvement, Evidence Capacity Team (OPRE/ACF). We appreciated learning from and with Dr. Sansbury-Scott. It was a joy watching her blossom during her time at CEED, and while we’ll miss her, we are excited to see what's next for her. Congratulations and best of luck!
* Support for the Centering Parent Voice and Reimagining Childcare Research Projects was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Written By: Nicole Kingdon