Carolyn Hill (MA ’96) is a senior fellow at MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization. She joined the La Follette School Board of Visitors in 2020.
Hill works on implementation research across policy areas at MDRC, which aims to find ways to improve programs and policies that affect families who live in poverty. She is currently involved in an evaluation of a mother and infant home visiting program, a study that seeks to understand children’s and families’ experiences of poverty, and a project that examines new strategies to improve the earnings of noncustodial parents who owe child support, among other projects. She also cocurates MDRC’s Implementation Research Incubator and helps lead MDRC’s Implementation Research Group, which supports innovative and rigorous implementation research methods across the organization’s policy areas and studies.
A La Follette alum with a master’s degree in public affairs from the La Follette Institute, Hill went on to earn a PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago in 2001. Prior to her appointment at MDRC, she was a tenured associate professor of public policy at Georgetown University. Hill is the author of three books and a number of journal articles that address implementation, public management, performance measurement, and program evaluation. Hill currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
“The La Follette School provides important connections with state government to its students, and as an alum of the school, I know how invaluable these opportunities are to students interested in working in public policy.”
The La Follette School Board of Visitors provides important guidance by identifying resources that can raise the stature and standing of the school, helping with fundraising, providing career advice to students, and acting as goodwill ambassadors. The La Follette School is grateful to Hill for sharing her extensive expertise with the board and the school.