Kate Steber is a research scientist in the early childhood development program area. Kate’s interests include community-based interventions, early childhood mental health, and the social-emotional development of young children. She is also interested in using research and evaluation to address inequities and create a more equitable and accessible early childhood system for all children. In her evaluation work, Kate works to include and make heard the voices and experiences of parents, children, and families. Her current projects focus on implementation and process evaluations of community-based initiatives and improvements to quality in early childhood programs and systems. For example, she supports a project to evaluate the implementation of a comprehensive birth through grade three strategy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Prior to Child Trends, Kate worked for SHIFT NC, coordinating a community-wide teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent access to care initiative in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She also worked with Durham’s Partnership for Children on issues related to early childhood mental health, school readiness, and children’s transition to kindergarten. Kate received Masters degrees in social work and public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.