Kirsten Kainz

Quality Early Care and Education Revisited: What It Means and What It Takes

Kirsten Kainz is associate director for research development and translation and research professor in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining the School of Social Work, Kainz served as the director of statistics and as an applied statistician at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, where she is currently a fellow. Kainz uses quantitative, systemic, and participatory methods to identify and describe approaches that promote equitable child development and early learning. Her work has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, the American Educational Research Association, as well as by numerous foundations and local school districts. Outside of university research, Kainz has served as a partnership consultant for the Strategic Education Research Partnership Institute and as an elected school board member of a small urban school district.