Andra Wilkinson, PhD, MSPH, is a senior research scientist who examines systems, policies, and practices that support health equity, with a focus on behavioral health and maternal and child health. Dr. Wilkinson has more than 15 years of experience in health care from the provider, insurer, and public health perspectives.

Dr. Wilkinson’s recent work includes a multi-year evaluation of a prenatal-to-three system equity initiative, an examination of the long-term implications of prenatal opioid exposure for children, and a mixed methods analyses of Medicaid’s potential role in expanding school-based behavioral health services. Dr. Wilkinson has worked with federal, state, county, and foundation partners. She also leads the Child Trends’ Analytics Team, creating training and quality guidelines for our research methodologies.

Dr. Wilkinson has created interactive maps and stories with layers of data and built a strong skill set in quantitative analysis. She has designed longitudinal multilevel analyses, with complex weighting. Additionally, Dr. Wilkinson has created cost effectiveness and systems dynamics models.

Dr. Wilkinson’s research has been featured in the Washington Post (here and here) and she is frequently an invited expert for panels and federal government agencies on maternal health, behavioral health, and Medicaid. Further, she is an invited member of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, frequently sharing research with state and federal policymakers—including meeting with bipartisan Congressional offices.

Dr. Wilkinson holds a PhD and MSPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an adjunct assistant professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.