Natalia serves as the chief operations officer at Child Trends, the nation’s leading nonprofit research organization focused exclusively on improving the lives and prospects of children, youth, and their families. In the 11 years Natalia has been at Child Trends, she’s led business development and culture initiatives that have resulted in a more than quintupling of organizational revenue. These efforts have also led to consistent nationwide recognition of Child Trends as a great place to work.

Natalia sets the organization’s research direction; oversees more than 200 research staff; ensures the strategy, effective management, quality, and ethics of Child Trends’ research; manages human capital and workplace culture; and oversees administrative leaders in IT, facilities, data security, systems, and compliance. Previously, she served as Child Trends’ senior vice president for research and operations and, prior to that, as vice president for research operations.

With a strong background in education and statistics and 25 years in the nonprofit research sector, Natalia served in several leadership roles before coming to Child Trends. She was the executive director of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Education Statistics Services Institute (NAEP ESSI), working closely with the National Center for Education Statistics, a visiting scholar at the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, a managing director at the American Institutes for Research, a co-director of a federally funded center to support the education of youth who are neglected or delinquent, and a contractor lead of the U.S. Department of Education’s strategic planning and data quality initiatives.

Natalia has written more than 50 articles, papers, presentations, and book chapters on the use of data, accountability reforms, and related data quality and performance measures.