Stephanie M. Jones is the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Child Development and Education and Director of the EASEL Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research, anchored in prevention science, focuses on the effects of poverty and exposure to violence on social, emotional, and behavioral development from early childhood through early
adolescence. Over the past 15 years, her work has centered on evaluation research addressing the impact of preschool- and elementary-level social-emotional learning interventions on behavioral and academic outcomes and classroom practices, as well as new curriculum development, implementation, and testing.
Jones is also codirector (with Nonie Lesaux) of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative and Co-PI of the Early Learning Study at Harvard (ELS@H). She serves on numerous national advisory boards and expert consultant groups related to social-emotional development, early childhood education, and child and family antipoverty policies, including recently as a member of the Council of Distinguished Scientists for the Aspen National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. Her research is published in academic and educational journals as well as in trade publications, and she regularly presents her work to national academic and practitioner audiences. Jones holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a doctorate from Yale University.

Katie Brush is a Research Assistant at the EASEL Lab. Her work has primarily supported the SEL Analysis Project, which focuses on analyzing and describing the curricular content and key features of leading social emotional learning programs in ways that enable schools and out-of-school-time organizations to make informed decisions about SEL programming.