Lisa Long

Project Director

(662) 325-3839

lisa.long@ssrc.msstate.edu

M.A., Teachers College, Columbia University

Lisa Long is a Research Associate III working as the Project Manager of Project ECHO for Childcare Providers. Project ECHO is administered by the SSRC, in collaboration with the University of Mississippi’s Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center and connects Mississippi childcare providers with behavioral and healthcare specialists. Long also works with the Mississippi Thrive! Child Health and Development Project (mississippithrive.com), and the Mississippi Data Project (msdataproject.com). Long collaborates with State Agencies providing Early Childhood / Family Support for Mississippi Thrive!, a joint project of the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the SSRC which seeks to improve the developmental health of children ages 0-5 in Mississippi. The Mississippi Data Project seeks to advance data-driven decision-making in promoting best practice models and policies for children and families in Mississippi resulting from data analysis of health, education, and economic data. Long is an experienced educator with program management, design, planning, implementation, monitoring/evaluation, and technical assistance skills with experience teaching in both American and international preschools. Her work at the SSRC has included an evaluation of the Mississippi Healthy Students Act of 2007, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a survey of Mississippi’s public school kindergarten teachers about the level of school readiness among their students, and the design of an NIH-funded curriculum for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students to assist young children in developing healthy eating and activity habits early in life. Long holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology / Sociology from Rhodes College, and a Master of Arts in International Educational Development with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before joining the SSRC in 2012, she worked both internationally and domestically with the nonprofit organization, Save the Children, as their Senior Education Specialist in Early Childhood Development. Long also worked in Albania as the Education Manager for Catholic Relief Services and International Rescue Committee and has direct service experience with young children and their families in preschools in Ramallah, Palestine and in the Bronx, NYC. She is especially interested in developing and evaluating activities and systems which address the needs of children living in difficult circumstances.