Uyen (Sophie) Nguyen, M.A., is a Senior Research Associate/Project Director at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University. Sophie provides research support across NCCP, using her experience in collecting and analyzing data, conducting research reviews, and coordinating projects to support several projects in the Early Childhood unit, along with the Health and Mental Health unit. She also manages ongoing updates to the center's 50-state Two-Generation Early Childhood Policy Profiles. Areas of expertise include: Early childhood mental health, Family engagement in early care and education, Two-generation policies for families in deep poverty, Policies that support high quality early care and education.
What projects are you currently working on?
I’m working on 4 main projects related to early childhood education and early childhood mental health. One is a collaborative effort with Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning to test the usefulness of two new tools that we designed to help child care programs strengthen family engagement practices. The second project is an online survey of Virginia’ early care and education (ECE) teachers and providers. We created the survey to understand ECE teachers’ and providers’ experiences related to young children with challenging behavior. The survey results will be presented to the Early Childhood Mental Health Virginia Advisory Board and help them make recommendations to state leaders about ways to support children’s social-emotional well-being and development. The third project is a 50-state survey that gathered information from state administrators about Medicaid coverage of early childhood mental health services (ECMH). Our report will examine trends in ECMH services across the states and discuss options for enhancing the services. Last, I’m managing ongoing updates to one of the center’s online data tools called “Early Childhood Two-Generation State Policy Profiles.” The profiles provide a two-generation view of current policies affecting children birth to age 8, nationally and state-by-state, in the areas of early care and education, health, and parenting/family economic supports.
My work includes providing research support and data analyses for various projects around ECE and ECMH. We also collaborate with state organizations and advocacy groups to introduce ECE and ECMH policies that serve children and their families, especially those living below the poverty line.
What made you choose the EDSP program?
At the time, I was looking for a program in education policy evaluation with a strong focus on data analysis. I was also interested in learning more about different education policies in the US and looking at them from both economics and sociology lenses. The EDSP program provided all of that, so it wasn’t a very difficult choice for me.
How did the EDSP program help shape your career path?
The program has helped shaped my career path in many ways. All the statistics and research courses helped strengthen my data analysis and research skills. Internship listings, alumni panels, etc. were also invaluable and provided necessary preparation for my current job. But most importantly, throughout the program, I was able to think more critically about education issues, and my interest in early childhood development evolved. Early childhood development is now the field I am working in; I hope to pursue further training in the near future so that I can become more of a content expert in early childhood. I’m a die-hard optimist that every child will be able to flourish if given resources and support s/he needs in early years of life. I’m not advocating for neglecting other age groups, but I firmly believe that investing in early childhood is an economical investment and an important solution for a more sustainable future for the US and other countries.