Scott Baumgartner

Scott Baumgartner specializes in formative, qualitative, and implementation research with family support programs, including responsible fatherhood and healthy relationship education programs and two-generation approaches. He is a leader in providing evidence-based technical assistance and using rapid-cycle evaluation methods to improve programs for families with low income and their children.

Baumgartner’s work at Mathematica focuses on generating evidence and research to improve programs serving vulnerable families and families with low-income and their children. He developed conceptual frameworks and led process studies, site visits, and evaluation technical assistance on two large random-assignment studies of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs. On a recent project for the Administration for Children and Families, he led a national scan to identify and describe two-generation programs, one of the first federally funded efforts to understand the developmental state and readiness for evaluation of programs in this emerging field. On this project, Baumgartner also co-developed a conceptual framework that articulated hypotheses for how collaborative partnerships could support child development and improve families’ economic security. He is currently the deputy director for a project sponsored by the Office of Family Assistance to build the capacity of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs to use evidence in program improvement and to improve outcomes for children and families through evidence-based technical assistance, human-centered design thinking, and rapid-cycle evaluation methods.

Baumgartner, who joined Mathematica in 2012, earned an M.P.P. from Georgetown University with a concentration in social, family, and economic policy.