Jennifer Widstrand is the senior project manager for the education research area at Child Trends. In this capacity, she applies a variety of management strategies to effectively oversee projects for grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. 

Jennifer supports the Pacific East Comprehensive Center, which serves education agencies in Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to improve educational outcomes through capacity building, professional development, and evidence-based interventions. She has built organizational and collaborative structures to ensure efficient and effective communication with a large team of technical assistance providers and partner organizations.    

Additionally, Jennifer supports The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families, where she coordinates cross-disciplinary teams to ensure reporting requirements are met, makes sure timelines are adhered to, and manages budgets to meet the center’s mission of delivering actionable research to policymakers and practitioners. and building capacity for the future of the field. 

Jennifer also manages federal grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), ensuring the seamless coordination of complex research initiatives focused on advancing scientific understanding on student engagement, community safety, and the use of Artificial Intelligence in predicting outcomes for youth. Collaboration with subcontractors and compliance with federal regulations are key priorities for Jennifer on these projects.  

Her volunteer work managing projects with other non-profit organizations has focused on fundraising to develop the potential of women and improve childhood well-being in her local community. 

Jennifer has expertise in literacy education in addition to project management. Prior to joining Child Trends, she was a public elementary school teacher and literacy coach for 16 years. She holds educator licenses in Elementary Education (K-6) and Reading K-12 and is LETRS certified. Jennifer graduated from the University of South Florida, where she studied elementary education, with additional coursework in business administration, and she holds a project management certificate from Google as well as a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.