Heidi Melz

Research Associate

Heidi Melz, PhD, is Research Associate at Innovations Institute, University of Connecticut School of Social Work. Her work focuses on the evaluation of interventions and services designed to improve child and family well-being and to strengthen the capacity and functioning of child-serving systems. Dr. Melz’s research has included numerous multisite, multistate studies to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of programs for children and families involved in the child welfare system, including children with trauma experiences and those affected by prenatal substance exposure. She served as Deputy Director of an evaluation of the Children’s Bureau’s Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative, a nationwide TA collaborative that supports state and tribal child welfare programs and courts to increase their capacity to meet federal standards and improve outcomes for children and families. She also led a four-year, cross-site implementation evaluation of efforts in five states to reduce the problem of long-term foster care. This project included an emphasis on designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative approaches to improve permanency outcomes and reduce disparities for African American, American Indian, and LGBTQ+ children, and children with serious emotional disturbances. For the federal Interagency Task Force for Trauma-Informed Care, led by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Dr. Melz developed a systematic umbrella review of research on trauma-informed care for children. She also spent 10 years providing TA to Children’s Bureau’s child welfare discretionary grantees implementing projects in the areas of child trauma, mental and behavioral health, and services to older youth in out-of-home care. Dr. Melz holds a PhD in human development and family science from the University of Texas at Austin.