April Wilson, PhD, is a developmental researcher who focuses on identifying the antecedents of stable and healthy family relationships. In addition to leading projects, Dr. Wilson has been invited to present at federal and state agencies, research conferences, and practitioner and advocacy groups convenings. She also has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions about linking research and data to practice and policies that affect children and families. Dr. Wilson’s research has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family and as reports for legislators, various agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Institute of Education Sciences, and state agencies. She also contributed to articles in the Dallas Morning News and the San Antonio Express News.

Currently, Dr. Wilson serves as the project director for the HHS Office of Adolescent Health’s (OAH) website and communications contract. She is responsible for project management, content development for the OAH website, outreach to grantees and OAH partners, and social media coordination. Dr. Wilson also serves as the task lead on the Home Visiting Research and Platform Development project. In that role, she helps lead the nationwide efforts to develop guidelines for research and evaluation methods using breakthrough impact principles for researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in the field to effectively address the specific needs of program participants. Furthermore, Dr. Wilson is the principal investigator for a study of a dual generation program, AVANCE, where she reviews and analyzes program data. She also provides feedback on implementation and outcome performance and methods to more effectively use data for continuous improvement on this project. Her other projects focus on topics such as supporting the prevention of intimate partner violence through work with fathers; enhancing relationship education programs that serve vulnerable youth, including youth in foster care; family strengthening after paternal incarceration; and teen pregnancy prevention. She has also led training and technical assistant efforts on several projects, including for the Pregnancy Assistance Fund grantees.