Chrishana M. Lloyd, MSW, PhD, is a research scholar with over twenty-five years of experience in the social science and education fields. Dr. Lloyd draws on implementation science, innovative data collection strategies, history, and context to understand and evaluate human service, early care and education, and philanthropic programming, policies, and systems. Dr. Lloyd has directed and served as the managerial and intellectual lead for numerous research projects across the country including serving as the Inaugural Primary Investigator and Research Lead for the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center. Many of her projects are funded by and leverage public and private dollars to seed, innovate, and work toward scalable and sustainable solutions within systems that serve people and communities who have been minoritized and marginalized.

Dr. Lloyd’s thought leadership and influence is evident in her writings and makes her a “go to” person for research focused on policies, systems, and their impact. She has also authored reports, policy briefs, blogs, infographics, toolkits, newsletters, book chapters, magazine and academic articles and has presented her work in video, community, town hall, webinar, and conference formats. Two of her publications have received the distinction of being the most downloaded publications at Child Trends, and many others have been included in the top ten downloads of their respective years. Her research has also been cited in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, MSNBC, and Early Learning Nation, and she has served as a content advisor on many family and education-focused books.

Dr. Lloyd’s national reputation for rigorous and thoughtful research occurs alongside her strong belief in partnership and collaboration to advance knowledge. She has worked with a wide variety of individuals, communities, locales, and states, as well as at the federal level. This work includes interactions with researchers, policy makers, practitioners, families, philanthropists, and others to engage in strategic planning, conduct research and evaluation, facilitate data use, disseminate learnings, implement promising strategies, and inform policy, programs, and systems.

Dr. Lloyd is launching two new multi-year research projects in 2025. The first, Examining Leadership in Early Care and Education (ECE) will facilitate understanding about the ways individuals working in influential positions in ECE enter, remain, and are supported in their work and how these issues may influence ECE policy. The second, Black Families Flourishing, is designed to advance knowledge about the diversity of Black families and how policies, programs, and systems affect their well-being.