Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative
The Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative is an innovative partnership between Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, their Division of Prevention and Community Wellbeing and Department for Community Based Services, and Western Kentucky University’s LifeSkills Center for Child Welfare Education and Research.
For well over a decade, Kentucky has developed a formidable and university-based system for implementing a collaborative and robust Quality Improvement program to support their workforce and evaluate and monitor their provision of services to families and children.
The Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative builds upon this strong foundation, leveraging the active contribution of the state’s child and adult protection agency and Kentucky’s growing applied research center focused on child welfare at WKU. Specifically, this partnership is intentionally connecting research faculty and agency data personnel to collectively utilize agency data to create translational deliverables that will benefit staff and stakeholders based on agency needs and priorities (e.g., manuscripts, presentations, videos, trainings, testimonies, etc.).
The Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative is a multifaceted partnership designed to strategically benefit the community through the use of data science, while proactively seeking solutions to essential areas that impact the Commonwealth and its most vulnerable populations (e.g., adoption related services, out-of-home care related services, child protective services, transitional services, clinical services, quality assurance related services, prevention services, and adult protective services, etc.).
For more information about the Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative, please contact Principal Investigator Dr. Austin Griffiths at Austin.Griffiths@wku.edu.
Child Welfare Analytics Specialist
Bryan Lusby is a specialist on the Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative in Partnership with Kentucky’s Department of Community Based Services. Bryan has worked in this position for nearly five years. Bryan obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology (2015) and Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2018) from Eastern Kentucky University. Bryan assists the Department of Community Based Services in data-related requests and provides support as needed.
Child Welfare Analytics Specialist
Emily Johns is a Quality Control Analyst on the Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative in Partnership with Kentucky's Department of Community Based Services. Emily obtained her Bachelor of Science in Business Economics in the spring of 2023 from Western Kentucky University and is currently working toward completing her Master of Arts in Applied Economics, which she anticipates obtaining this fall. Emily assists the Department of Community Based Services by conducting data analysis, evaluation, and research design to enhance the quality of life for children.
Child Welfare Analytics Specialist
Mohsen Tabibian, Ph.D., specializes in statistical modeling and machine learning, making him an integral part of the partnership with the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS). With a background in mathematical statistics and data science, Mohsen brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the team. His research focuses on predictive analytics and large-data analytics, and his recent work involves extending Bootstrap Aggregation of Neural Networks for enhanced prediction accuracy, with an application to COVID-19 forecasting. Mohsen received his Ph.D. in Mathematics and a Master of Science in Data Science from the University of Montana. As a Quality Control Analyst, Mohsen will be contributing his skills to support the DCBS in data-related requests and analytics projects, ensuring data-driven insights lead to impactful decisions.
Child Welfare Analytics Specialist
Olivia Dick is a specialist with the Child Welfare Analytics Collaborative, a partnership between Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Division of Prevention and Community Wellbeing, the Department for Community Based Services, and Western Kentucky University's LifeSkills Center for Child Welfare Education and Research. Olivia holds a B.S. in Psychological Science (2023) and a M.S. in Psychological Science (2024), both from Western Kentucky University. In this role, her work contributes to the collaborative's mission to leverage data science for improving outcomes in various aspects of child welfare systems.
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