Rockville Institute Affiliates in
Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Ronna J. Cook, MSW
Robert B. Hill, PhD
Karla McPherson, PhD
Andrea J. Sedlak, PhD
Ronna J. Cook, MSW, is a nationally recognized expert in research and evaluation of child welfare programs. She has designed and
directed a number of major national studies of services to children and families, including the National Head Start Impact Study;
the Assessment of the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program; several major evaluations of family preservation, family support,
and reunification services; the original evaluation of the Illinois Subsidized Guardianship Waiver Demonstration, as well as the
extension of this program pertaining to older wards; the National Evaluation of Title IV-E Foster Care Independent Living
Programs; and several studies on public adoption services and adoptive parent recruitment. Her experience spans an extensive
range of methodologies, including randomized control group designs, audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI) with youth,
the design of original instruments for interviews or records extraction, and the use of standardized assessments.
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Robert B. Hill, PhD, is a sociologist and a national expert on issues affecting minority and low-income children and families.
His work has focused on foster care and adoption, child abuse and neglect, child support, noncustodial fathers, welfare reform,
youth development, youth violence, kinship networks, and faith-based initiatives. Dr. Hill has engaged in all phases of research
and evaluation, including program and evaluability assessments, performance measurements, and policy analyses. He formerly
directed the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Karla McPherson, PhD, is a social psychologist with extensive experience in teaching and research. Her work has
addressed a variety of issues related to children and families, criminal justice, racial and ethnic minorities, and health care
quality. Dr. McPherson's research experience includes the National Incidence Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS), the National
Evaluation of Runaway and Homeless Youth, the Adoption Assistance Impact and Outcomes study, the Evaluation of Ohio's Title IV-E
Waiver Demonstration Project "ProtectOhio," and the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement for the Office of Juvenile Justice.
She has also directed program evaluation and database development for the African American Health Program in Montgomery County,
Maryland. Dr. McPherson's areas of expertise include survey design and methodology and quantitative analysis.
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Andrea J. Sedlak, PhD, is a social psychologist with experience in research on children, youth, and families, with special focus
on troubled, vulnerable, and victimized groups. She has designed and conducted studies on child abuse and neglect, adopted
children and their families, missing children, runaway and homeless youth, and juvenile offenders in residential placement. Her
methodological expertise ranges from large-scale national incidence designs to in-depth interviews on highly sensitive subjects,
and she is adept at devising creative methods to maintain confidentiality and anonymity of study data.
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