Our People

Graduate Fellows

R. Gabriela Barajas (rgb2016@columbia.edu) is a third-year doctoral student in Developmental Psychology and a graduate research fellow at the National Center for
Children and Families. Her research interests include the effects of poverty, acculturation
and maternal depression on child development. She is particularly interested in the self-perceived competence, health behaviors and scholastic achievement of children in "at risk" environments. Before entering the doctoral program, Ms. Barajas was the Special
Projects Coordinator for First 5 Ventura County (California). She earned her B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University (2001) and her M.A. in Developmental Psychology at Teachers College (2005). At the Center, Ms. Barajas works on The Yonkers Family and Community Project and the Fragile Families project.

Katherine A. Beckmann (kab2154@columbia.edu) is a doctoral student in Developmental Psychology and a graduate research fellow at NCCF. She is particularly interested in exploring the intersection of child development and public health policy with the multi-dimensional goal of preparing infants and toddlers for lifelong education. Before entering the doctoral program, Ms. Beckmann was a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Emerging Leaders Fellow at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Ms Beckmann earned her B.A. in Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and her M.P.H. in Health Policy and Administration at Yale University. At NCCF, she works on the Fragile Families project. She is also the recipient of a 2007-2008 Fellowship for Policy from the Office of Policy and Research at Teachers College.

Erin Bumgarner (ekb2130@columbia.edu) is a first-year doctoral student in Developmental Psychology and a graduate research fellow at NCCF. Ms. Bumgarner earned her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from American University in Washington DC. After graduating, she moved to Boston where she worked as a teacher and completed her Masters Degree at Boston College in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology. Her research interests focus on how broad ecological risks, such as poverty, affect child development across different cultures and contexts. She is particularly interested in how such research can be used to inform social policies to benefit children and families.

Jondou Chen (jjc2172@columbia.edu) is a first-year doctoral student in Developmental Psychology and a graduate research assistant at the National Center for Children and Families. Mr. Chen's research interests involve the intersection of adolescent, moral, and cross-cultural development as well as neighborhood effects on development. Before coming to NCCF, Mr. Chen was a program director at the La Jolla Presbyterian Church and, prior to this, Mr. Chen served as a social studies teacher at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and a director at the University Lutheran Homeless Shelter. Mr. Chen graduated from Harvard College in 2001 with a B.A. in Intellectual History and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with an M.Ed in 2005. At NCCF, Mr. Chen is currently working on the Early Head Start Follow-Up Study and the Fragile Families project. Earlier, he had worked on the Yonkers Housing Project.

Rebecca E. Gomez (reg2137@columbia.edu) is a first-year doctoral student in Curriculum and Teaching concentrating on early childhood policy. As a graduate research fellow at NCCF, Ms. Gomez works on a variety of projects, including Policy Matters. Her research interests include the development of state and national professional development systems for early childhood professionals, as well as workforce development issues (i.e. capacity-building, teacher disposition, and access). Before joining NCCF, Ms. Gomez worked for a variety of state and national early childhood organizations, including the PA Early Learning Keys to Quality program, NACCRRA, and the State of NH’s Child Development Bureau. She has also held adjunct faculty positions in the Early Childhood Departments at West Chester University and Granite State College. Ms. Gomez earned her M.Ed. in Early Childhood from the University of NH in 2004, and her B.A. in American Studies from Rutgers University in 2001. She was named a Children’s Defense Fund Emerging Leader in 2004 and a NACCRRA Emerging Leader in 2005. Aside from her work at NCCF, Ms. Gomez is a member of Commonwealth of PA’s Early Learning Council and the NAEYC Governing Board.

Saima Gowani (sg2755@columbia.edu) is a doctoral student in the Curriculum and Teaching department at Teachers College, and a Graduate Research Fellow at National Center for Children and Families. Her research interests include looking at the economic and social benefits of early childhood education in international contexts. Before coming to Teachers College, she worked with the Aga Khan Foundation as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the Foundation's education programs. She has worked and traveled in various countries in Asia and Africa, helping programs set up Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) to help programs make better decisions about the effectiveness of their interventions. She holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Masters in Education with a concentration in International Education Policy from Harvard.

Aleksandra Holod (ah2574@columbia.edu) is a doctoral student in Developmental Psychology and an NCCF graduate research fellow. Her research interests include the effects of poverty and related risk factors on children’s development, and the potential of intervention programs to mediate these risk factors. A second area of interest is child care quality, including efforts to measure the relationship between quality and children’s long-term outcomes, and efforts to improve quality. Before entering the doctoral program, Ms. Holod conducted policy analysis for a pre-k advocacy campaign in California; directed a multi-million dollar fund for children’s programs in Oakland, California; and worked as a preschool teacher. She has also worked with the National Women’s Law Center to improve federal policies for low-income women and their families. Ms. Holod was named an “emerging leader” in early care and education by the Children's Defense Fund. She holds a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and an M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Anna D. Johnson (adj2106@columbia.edu) a graduate research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families, is a fifth-year doctoral student in Developmental Psychology. At NCCF, Ms. Johnson has worked on the Head Start Quality Research Project, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and a project with New York City's Administration for Children's Services to develop, field test, and evaluate a unified quality assessment tool for the city's child care programs. Currently, Ms. Johnson is conducting analyses of merged administrative and survey data on a sample of New York City parents who use subsidized child care to address questions about parents' experiences applying for subsidies and selecting and using care. Ms. Johnson's own research interests center around the availability and use of government subsidies for child care, and factors that influence low-income families' selection of and access to early child care and education programs. Her dissertation uses the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to examine characteristics that predict take-up of child care subsidies, and the impact of subsidy receipt on child care quality and child development. Ms. Johnson was recently awarded several grants to support her dissertation research, including the prestigious Child Care Research Scholar grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and a grant from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy. Ms. Johnson also teaches an introductory policy course at Columbia's School of Social Work. Prior to coming to Columbia, Ms. Johnson worked at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and as an English teacher in Bari, Italy.

Lizabeth Malone (lmr51@columbia.edu) is earning her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology. As a graduate research fellow at NCCF, she works on the Head Start Quality Research Center project and on the Afterschool Time project. Her research interests focus on early education experiences. Specifically, she is interested in home activities and extracurricular activities that enhance children's learning. Before entering the doctoral program in Fall 2003, Ms. Malone worked for the American Institutes for Research assisting with the U.S. Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies. She earned her B.A. in early childhood education and in psychology from Hood College (1996) and her M.A. in developmental psychology at Teachers College (1999).

Selected Publications and Presentations of Lizabeth Malone

Kate Tarrant (kct2102@columbia.edu) is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Teaching, concentrating on early childhood policy. As a graduate research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF), Ms. Tarrant works on the National and International Transitions Analysis and the Policy Matters Project. In addition, she worked on the Early Care and Education Workforce Initiative and previously served as the Assessment Coordinator for the NCCF project with New York City's Administration for Children's Services to develop, field test, and evaluate a unified quality assessment tool for early care and education programs in New York City. Her research interests include the application of early care and education policy to improve practice in different types of early learning settings. Her dissertation investigates the relationship between quality rating and improvement systems and different dimensions of quality. Ms. Tarrant received the Child Care Research Scholar grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families to support her dissertation. Ms. Tarrant earned her Masters Degree in Public Administration at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She has been a consultant for New York City's Administration for Children Services Division of Child Care and Head Start and previously worked as the Public Policy Specialist for Good Beginnings Alliance, Hawaii’s statewide early childhood advocacy organization.

Selected Publications and Presentations of Kate Tarrant