Transforming Child Care

Experience the Event

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Listen in to a conversation on the current state of child care in the United States and the innovative work being done in local communities to create a thriving sector that equitably values children, families, and workers.

Hosted by King County (Seattle, WA) & The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities at Notre Dame, Evidence Matters is a series of virtual events designed to engage and inspire community partners, researchers, and policymakers as they work together tackling the biggest issues those in poverty face. This partnership pairs top researchers with passionate leaders in the social service sector to conduct impact evaluations that identify the innovative, effective, and scalable programs and policies that help people move permanently out of poverty.

Featured Speakers:

• Carrie Cihak, King County Evidence & Impact Officer
• Chloe Gibbs, assistant professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame
• Jessica Tollenaar Cafferty, Best Starts of Kids co-lead, King County, WA
• Justin Doromal, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC

Partner with LEO

The Evidence Matters series is sponsored on ThinkND by the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). Poverty is stubborn and requires the utmost collaboration of thought and action to drive change. People of goodwill must bring their unique strengths and positions together to solve this problem. At LEO, we believe knowledge has to be combined with action. But poverty can’t be solved by just one person, or even one sector. That’s why we bring together innovative social service provider partners, top-tier academics, philanthropists, policymakers, and others to tackle poverty.

Change is possible. And with your action, we can get one step closer to reducing poverty in our country, together. 

Your job is to act. What will you do?

For more information, please visit LEO’s website.

Meet the Speaker: Carrie Cihak

Carrie S. Cihak is the King County Evidence & Impact Officer. In this role, Carrie develops external partnerships that expand research and evaluation capacity to help county agencies advance equity and augment the positive impact of King County’s work. Carrie also develops partnerships to highlight successful practices and lessons that may be of value to other departments and jurisdictions.

Carrie has worked at King County for more than 20 years. Before joining DES, Carrie built research partnerships and evidence-building practices at King County Metro. Other positions included serving as Executive Constantine’s Policy Director and working on the County Council’s central staff. 

Before joining King County, Carrie worked for The White House Council of Economic Advisers, taught economics at The College of William & Mary, and worked in the public education system in Japan. Carrie has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in economics from Boston University.

Outside of work, Carrie is happiest when making pie, knits, new friends, and good trouble. Carrie and partner, George, live in central Seattle with three cats adopted from Regional Animal Services of King County.

Meet the Faculty: Chloe Gibbs '00

Chloe Gibbs ’00 is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame. She came to Notre Dame in 2015, where she is also a faculty affiliate of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and director of Notre Dame’s Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (ND PIER). In 2022-2023, she served as a senior economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Gibbs studies the economics of education and is interested in measuring the effects, both intended and unintended, of policies and programs targeted at disadvantaged children and families. Her research includes investigating the intergenerational transmission of Head Start effects, understanding the role of publicly-funded education in facilitating maternal employment, and exploring the role of “soft skills” in children’s educational and labor market trajectories. Professor Gibbs earned her B.A. at Notre Dame and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago’s Harris School. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, and cited by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC, and NPR.

Meet the Speaker: Jessica Tollenaar Cafferty

Jessica Tollenaar Cafferty serves as the Best Starts Co-Lead sitting in Public Health. In 2017 Jessica joined Best Starts to lead child care health consultation work, and since 2019, she has been the Child Care Policy Lead for King County, WA and Best Starts for Kids. In this role she partners with families and providers to build a regional child care subsidy system and grow provider wages. Jessica’s background includes work as a child care provider, child care health consultation, early learning and inclusion in child care settings, policy and advocacy, and hospitality. She brings a deep commitment to equity and justice. Jessica and her partner, Jacob, have two kids: Varden, 7, and Luther, 2. In her free time, Jessica enjoys gardening, eating great food, hosting friends and neighbors, and adventuring with her family. 

Meet the Speaker: Justin Doromal

Justin B. Doromal is a senior research associate in the Family and Financial Well-Being Division at the Urban Institute, where he contributes to child care and early education policy projects. His research focuses on policy initiatives aiming to stabilize, build, and strengthen the availability of high-quality early care and education, and he is particularly interested in workforce stability and compensation issues. Doromal also studies how policies and systems can support families’ search for and use of early care and education programs that meet their needs.

Before joining Urban, Doromal was a postdoctoral research associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. He also received an American Educational Research Association Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research in 2020 to support his doctoral research on child care program closures and teacher turnover in three state policy contexts.

Doromal holds a BA in mathematics from the University of South Florida and an MPP and an MEd in educational psychology and a PhD in education policy from the University of Virginia.