Nancy Thoennes

Nancy Thoennes, Ph.D. has conducted research involving juvenile and family courts in approximately 30 states. Her research has considered models of legal representation for children in child abuse and neglect cases; a national evaluation of the Court Improvement Projects (with Pal-Tech, Inc.); integrated approaches to managing multi-case families in the criminal justice system; and an evaluation of Family Group Decision-Making in Child Protection Cases in Colorado. Dr. Thoennes has also conducted research on dependency mediation in over 13 jurisdictions.

Predicting Famine Through Analytics

The Famine Early Warning System is an interagency network among federal agencies and the United Nations that began in 1985, using scientific data to target about $1.5 billion in food aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to those who need it most.  Participating federal agencies include the U.S.

One Size Doesn't Fit All: Marshaling Science in Crises

Almost 40 years ago, the Forest Service developed a command-and-control approach to battling forest fires that was successful in coordinating efforts across multiple jurisdictions and fire departments.  Its approach was adopted by other agencies to address their own forms of emergencies. For example, USDA uses it to battle infestations of crop-killing insects.

Leveraging research into healthcare quality, costs, outcomes, and patient safety

A Profile of Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Risky Business

Recovery Act guidance from OMB requires agencies to identify the risk associated with each program and develop a plan of action to reduce such risks. After all, if a program gets 3,100 % increase in funding, like the home weatherization program did, there must be some risk involved!

Adapting the Incident Command Model for Knowledge-Based Crises: The Case of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The federal government has developed increasingly sophisticated approaches to addressing emergencies and crises. One successful management model is the incident command system (ICS), which was initially developed in the 1970s as a command-and-control approach for fighting forest fires, but has since been adapted to other policy domains. The Department of Homeland Security adopted the ICS model—which it renamed the National Incident Management System (NIMS)—and required its use at all levels of government in emergency and crisis situations.

From Data to Decisions III

Today’s senior managers are tempted to begin analytics programs before determining the mission-essential questions they are seeking data to answer.  Older data-based analytics efforts often grew out of the discoveries of line employees who made connections and saw patterns in data after receiving new software or hardware that helped them make sense of what they were studying.