Tana James, M.S.W

Tana James, M.S.W.

ResearchAssociate

For themulti-year evaluation of Arkansas’s Title IV-E Waiver funded implementation of six initiatives designed to improve the safety and permanency of children, she has conducted case record reviews and content analysis of interviews conducted with key stakeholders at baseline and annually thereafter. Ms. James is also assisting with the interpretation of the data analysis conducted of Arkansas’s SACWIS as it relates to the successful achievement of State and federally- prescribed outcomes.

Ms. James isassisting withan assessment aimed at identifying the extent to which youth involved in Virginia’s juvenile justice system are also known to the child welfare system, and their involvement with the behavioral health and education systems. She is conducting a document review of policies related to intake, family engagement, discharge and re-entry, as well as dual-service delivery as they relate to youth who are known to multiple systems.

Ms. James came to HZA from the Social Work Education Consortium (SWEC) in Albany, New York, where she spent more than two years conducting evaluations about children and families in child welfare systems as a Project Research Assistant. One of the evaluations was of a new supervision initiative implemented in several New York counties called Building a Sustainable Support System in Child Welfare Supervision (BASSICS). Through one-on-one interviews with child welfare supervisors regarding their supervision responsibilities and their agencies’ readiness to implement a new supervision initiative, using protocols which she helped to develop, she assessed the effectiveness of structured supervision initiatives.

Preceding her stint at SWEC, Ms. James worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany’s School of Social Welfare, where she conducted literature searches and reviews about community violence, substance abuse and mental health disorders in African American women, and sexual harassment trainings in higher learning institutions. She also analyzed quantitative and qualitative data on a variety of topics including sexual harassment, gun violence, and mental health and substance abuse disorders.

In addition to her research experience, Ms. James worked at Parson’s Child and Family Center, a multi-service agency in New York’s Capital Region which provides counseling services, maltreatment prevention and treatment, family strengthening programs and residential services, as a clinical social worker. She provided therapeutic services to at-risk families including individual and family counseling and supervised visitations. Ms. James’ responsibilities included conducting family assessments, developing treatment goals and establishing methods to attain service goals. She also served as a data collector for a research project designed to evaluate critical treatment components needed to help children with complex post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) make significant improvements reducetheir traumatic stress reactions, high risk behaviors, placements and psychiatric hospitalizations. She conducted in-home interviews utilizing psychometric measures and qualitative questionnaires to assess PTSD symptoms in youth and families.

Ms. James received a B.A. in English and Africana Studies from SUNY Albany in 2006, and went on to earn her M.S.W. from the SUNY Albany School of Social Welfare in 2008. She is presently working toward her doctoral degree.

Needs Assessment

From Georgia Study of Placement Resources Operations Proposal – June 2015

Tana James, M.S.W., Research Associate

Tana James is a leading member of the Arkansas Title IV-E Waiver and ARCCC evaluation teams. She serves as a co-lead for both evaluations, helping to develop case review instruments and interview protocols. Ms. James participates in all data collection efforts and often takes the lead in conducting content analyses and report writing. Ms. James will be attending the annual Diligent Recruitment meeting as the evaluation lead this month.

Prior to joining HZA, Ms. James worked as a Project ResearchAssistant at the Social Work Education Consortium conductingevaluations about children and families in child welfaresystems. One of the evaluations was of a new supervision initiativeimplemented in several New York State counties entitled “Building aSustainable Support System in Child Welfare Supervision” (BASSICS). Itspurpose was to determine the effectiveness ofstructured supervision initiatives. Ms. James was responsible for developingsurvey instruments and protocols, conducting telephone interviews,analyzing the data and writing the final evaluation report.

In addition to her research experience, Ms. James served as a clinical social worker at Parson’s Child and Family Center, a multi-service agency in New York’s Capital Region which provides counseling services, maltreatment prevention and treatment, family strengthening programs and residential services. She provided therapeutic services to at-risk families including individual and family counseling and supervised visitations. Ms. James’ responsibilities included conducting family assessments, developing treatment goals and establishing methods to attain service goals. While at Parson’s, she also served as a data collector for a project assessing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in children and families. Ms. James conducted in-home interviews with families using psychometric measures and open-ended questions.

As a Ph.D. candidate at the University atAlbany, Ms. James is conducting research on the impact of poverty andchild neglect on child welfare decision making. Her dissertation
research focuses on how family level factors like race and ethnicityand community level factors like poverty influence thelikelihood of being assigned to a family assessment response pathway.

Ms. James earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University at Albany and is presently working toward her doctoral degree in Social Welfare.

Program Evaluation

From Arkansas IV-E Waiver Evaluation Proposal – March 2016

Tana James, L.M.S.W., Process Evaluation Lead

Under the direction of Ms. Wilkey, Tana James will be the lead evaluator for the process evaluation component. Ms. James is a Research Associate with HZA, based out of the firm’s Troy, New York office. She joined HZA after several years as a preventive services worker with a large family service agency in Albany, New York and additional work in research evaluation. Since her arrival at HZA she has focused most of her efforts on the evaluations of Arkansas’s Title IV-E Waiver and the State’s Diligent Recruitment project where she is the project manager.

For both of these projects Ms. James has conducted case record reviews and onsite interviews with key stakeholders, conducted content analysis of interviews at baseline and annually thereafter, and assisted with writing the semi-annual reports. Ms. James is also analyzing the data produced from Arkansas’s SACWIS as it relates to the successful achievement of state and federally prescribed outcomes.

She worked with other HZA staff in developing the interview protocols with key stakeholders for the process evaluation of Safe at Home West Virginia, West Virginia’s IV-E Waiver initiative. Ms. James helped to conduct the baseline interviews with key stakeholders and summarize the results.

In addition to her research experience, Ms. James worked as a clinical social worker at Parson’s Child and Family Center, a multi-service agency in New York’s Capital Region which provides counseling services, maltreatment prevention and treatment, family strengthening programs and residential services. Ms. James’ responsibilities included conducting family assessments, developing treatment goals and establishing methods to attain service goals. Ms. James received a B.A. in English and Africana Studies from SUNY Albany in 2006, and went on to earn her M.S.W. from the SUNY Albany School of Social Welfare in 2008. She is presently working toward her doctoral degree having completed all of her coursework.

From Diligent Recruitment Waiver Evaluation Proposal – March 2016

Tana James, L.M.S.W., Project Manager

Tana James will serve as the project manager for the evaluation of Arkansas’s Diligent Recruitment Waiver. Based in the firm’s Troy, New York office, Ms. James joined the firm after several years as a preventive services worker with a large family service agency in Albany, New York and additional work in research evaluation. Since her arrival at HZA she has focused most of her efforts on the evaluations of Arkansas’s Diligent Recruitment and Title IV-E Waiver initiatives.

Ms. James has worked closely with DCFS and federal oversight personnel in the development of the methodology used to evaluate the Diligent Recruitment family to family model. She developed data collection protocols and participates in all aspects of the data collection and analysis efforts. For the evaluation of the Title IV-E Waiver interventions, she conducts annual interviews with staff, case reviews to inform the process and outcome components, and qualitative and quantitative analyses. Ms. James has also contributed to the writing of the semi-annual reports, and currently the interim report, for the IV-E Waiver.

She has also been instrumental in developing the interview protocols used to gather information from key stakeholders for the evaluation of Safe at Home West Virginia, i.e., West Virginia’s Title IV-E Waiver initiative. Ms. James was an active participant in the onsite data collection used to inform the process evaluation at the start of the evaluation, and will continue to assist throughout the term of the multi-year evaluation.

From Nevada Grant Project Evaluator Services Proposal – November 2015

Tana James is a Research Associate with Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc., based out of the firm’s Troy, New York office. Since her arrival at HZA in early 2015, she has participated in an array of activities including case record reviews, policy reviews and qualitative data analysis. She is currently managing the evaluation of Arkansas’s federal grant initiative, Diligent Recruitment, and co-managing the evaluation of that same state’s Title IV-E Waiver initiatives. Ms. James brought a wealth of research experience as well as clinical social work experience with her to HZA.

Ms. James came to HZA from the Social Work Education Consortium (SWEC) in Albany, New York, where she spent more than two years conducting evaluations of child welfare systems as a Project Research Assistant. Preceding her stint at SWEC, Ms. James worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany’s School of Social Welfare, where she analyzed quantitative and qualitative data on a variety of topics including sexual harassment, gun violence, and mental health and substance abuse disorders.

In addition to her research experience, Ms. James worked at Parson’s Child and Family Center, a multi-service agency in New York’s Capital Region as a clinical social worker. She provided therapeutic services to at-risk families including individual and family counseling and supervised visitations.

From West Virginia Title IV-E Waiver Evaluation Proposal – May 2015

Tana James, M.S.W., Process/Implementation Study Lead: Ms. James has been a key member of the evaluation team of Arkansas’s Title IV-E Waiver funded implementation of six initiatives designed to improve the safety and permanency of children. Ms. James has conducted case record reviews and onsite interviews with key stakeholders, conducted content analysis of interviews at baseline and annually thereafter, and assisted with writing the semi-annual reports. Ms. James is also assisting with the interpretation of the data analysis conducted of Arkansas’s SACWIS as it relates to the successful achievement of State and federally prescribed outcomes.

Ms. James is assisting with an assessment aimed at identifying the extent to which youth involved in Virginia’s juvenile justice system are also known to the child welfare system, and their involvement with the behavioral health and education systems. She is conducting a document review of policies related to intake, family engagement, discharge and re-entry, as well as dual-service delivery as they relate to youth who are known to multiple systems.

Ms. James came to HZA from the Social Work Education Consortium (SWEC) in Albany, New York, where she spent more than two years conducting evaluations involving children and families in child welfare systems. The focus of one evaluation was a new supervision initiative implemented in several New York counties called Building a Sustainable Support System in Child Welfare Supervision. Through one-on-one interviews with child welfare supervisors using protocols she helped to develop, she assessed the effectiveness of structured supervision initiatives. In addition to her research experience, Ms. James worked as a clinical social worker at Parson’s Child and Family Center, a multi-service agency in New York’s Capital Region which provides counseling services, maltreatment prevention and treatment, family strengthening programs and residential services. Ms. James’ responsibilities included conducting family assessments, developing treatment goals and establishing methods to attain service goals. Ms. James received a B.A. in English and Africana Studies from SUNY Albany in 2006, and went on to earn her M.S.W. from the SUNY Albany School of Social Welfare in 2008. She is presently working toward her doctoral degree having completed all of her coursework.

From Maine IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project Evaluation Service Proposal – March 2015

Tana James, M.S.W., Research Associate

Working from the Troy, New York office, Ms. James has been an integral member of the evaluation team of Arkansas’s Title IV-E Waiver funded implementation of six initiatives designed to improve the safety and permanency of children. Ms. James has conducted case record reviews and onsite interviews with key stakeholders, conducted content analysis of interviews at baseline and annually thereafter, and assisted with writing the semi-annual reports. Ms. James is also assisting with the interpretation of the data analysis conducted of Arkansas’s SACWIS as it relates to the successful achievement of State and federally- prescribed outcomes.

Ms. James is assisting with an assessment aimed at identifying the extent to which youth involved in Virginia’s juvenile justice system are also known to the child welfare system, and their involvement with the behavioral health and education systems. She is conducting a document review of policies related to intake, family engagement, discharge and re-entry, as well as dual-service delivery as they relate to youth who are known to multiple systems.

Workload Study

From Colorado Child Welfare Caseload Study Proposal – November 2015

Tana James, M.S.W., Research Associate

Tana James is a Research Associate with Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc., based out of the firm’s Troy, New York office. Since her arrival at HZA in early 2015, she has participated in an array of evaluations which focus on child welfare practices. Ms. James brought a wealth of research experience as well as clinical social work experience with her to HZA.

Tana James serves as a co-lead to the IV-E Waiver evaluation in Arkansas, is leading the evaluation of Arkansas’s Diligent Recruitment grant initiative and participating in the tool development and onsite data collection of West Virginia’s IV-E Waiver program. For both evaluations in Arkansas, she helped to develop the case review instruments and interview protocols, formulated evaluation plans of the case management data and took the lead in conducting the content analyses of qualitative data and report writing.