Nikki Aikens

Nikki Aikens is a mixed-methods researcher with two decades of early childhood research experience, including studies of Head Start, public pre-K, and other child care settings. Her work primarily includes descriptive and evaluation studies that support young children and their families by informing program improvement efforts and decision-making.

Aikens recently served as co-principal investigator for a Head Start study that sought to strengthen outreach and engagement with families experiencing adversities that are often intertwined with poverty. As co-principal investigator for the national, multicohort Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), she brought expertise on the engagement experiences and home environment resources of Head Start families. She has informed decisions regarding instrumentation for the Head Start FACES, Early Head Start Baby FACES, and Universal Preschool Child Outcomes studies, and she has led data analysis and reporting for these and other early childhood studies.

Aikens’ work also includes evaluations of place-based initiatives and studies focused on supports for systems change. For example, she has held key roles on a synthesis identifying the characteristics of high-functioning collective impact systems and on the implementation and outcomes study of a two-generation, place-based nonprofit program. For over a decade, she directed the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) Longitudinal Study, which examined implementation and outcomes for children and families participating in HCZ’s early childhood, school-based, and postsecondary programs.

Aikens, who joined Mathematica in 2006, is a manuscript reviewer for Early Childhood Research Quarterly and Child Development and has served as a member of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Committee on Policy and Communications and on the editorial board for SRCD’s Social Policy Report. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.