MDRC is pleased to announce that Cynthia Osborne has joined the MDRC Board of Directors.

Cynthia Osborne is a professor of early childhood education and policy in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She is also the founder and executive director of the national Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, an academic research center that translates the science of the developing child into state-level policies with the strongest evidence base of effectiveness.

Previously, she was on the faculty of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin for more than 16 years. At the LBJ School, she founded and directed the successful Child and Family Research Partnership, a nonpartisan research group. Osborne is a 2023 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow. She was also an appointed member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee to Reduce Child Poverty by Half in Ten Years.

Osborne’s teaching and research interests focus on social policy, poverty and inequality, family and child well-being, and family demography. She has extensive experience leading long-term evaluations of state and national programs, intending to help organizations understand what works and ensure sustainable implementation of effective policies. Osborne holds a Ph.D. in demography and public affairs from Princeton University, a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a master’s degree in education from Claremont Graduate University.

“We are delighted to welcome Cynthia Osborne to the MDRC Board of Directors,” said Bridget Terry Long, MDRC Board Chair. “MDRC will benefit from her multiple areas of expertise, including strengthening early child development and family well-being, conducting research that is both rigorous and actionable, and translating research findings and recommendations into changes in policy and practice.”

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join the MDRC Board of Directors,” said Cynthia Osborne. “MDRC has long been a leader in strengthening policies and programs that impact well-being through rigorous research and a deep understanding of those who are implementing and benefiting from the policies. To now be on the Board of this esteemed institution that I have admired for decades—and to be able to work with the other Board members—is extremely rewarding.”