Elizabeth Doran

Elizabeth Doran studies public policies and programs that support children and parents, particularly programs serving low-income families. Her work focuses on child care quality and access, and on parental access to employment and education when children are in care.

On the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) project, Doran conducts quantitative analyses of child and parent well-being. She currently leads analyses examining the relationship between material hardship, financial strain, and social support and the health and development of parents and children. Doran is part of the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES) team, working on survey design and development to understand the sustainability of partnerships between Early Head Start and child care providers. She also leads a review of quality measures for home-based child care and works on tasks related to improving the quality of prekindergarten.

Doran joined Mathematica in 2020. Her work has been published in Social Science and Medicine and RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in social policy and policy analysis from Columbia University and an A.M. (M.S.W. equivalent) from the University of Chicago.