CCFP 25th Anniversary Spotlight: Q&A with Whitney McCoy

As part of the Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP)'s 25th anniversary celebration, we are honoring faculty, researchers, and staff who have contributed to the Center's work, culture, and impact.

Whitney McCoy, PhD, is a research scientist at CCFP whose work is deeply community-engaged, focusing on how educational environments shape student engagement, well-being, and academic success.

Read on to learn more about Whitney's research initiatives, including an outreach program she co-founded to help underrepresented girls see themselves in STEM, favorite memories of CCFP, and favorite hidden NC gem.

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What year did you start working for the Center for Child and Family Policy and what drew you to work here?

I started working at the Center in 2022. I was drawn to CCFP because of its commitment to conducting research that informs policy and practice to improve outcomes for children and families. The opportunity to bridge rigorous research with community-engagement made CCFP an ideal place for my work.

Can you briefly describe your role at CCFP?

As a research scientist focusing on community-engagement and critical mixed methods approaches to examine educational outcomes, my role includes:

• Applying advanced qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to study educational experiences, facilitate structured focus groups, and provide research consultation on study design, data collection, and analysis.
• Investigating how educational environments impact student well-being, engagement, and achievement, with a focus on engineering and technology education.
• Designing and evaluating K-12 curriculum and professional development programs to improve educator support, workforce wellness, and student learning environments.
• Partnering with community organizations to advance engineering and technological innovation through mentorship, hands-on experiences, and research-driven strategies.

You joined CCFP as a member of the ITTI Care Project, what is your role within that team?

In the Infant-Toddler Trauma-Informed Care (ITTI Care) Project, I serve as an equity specialist, ensuring that our trauma-informed interventions are responsive to the needs of our participants.

You travel a lot with ITTI Care, have you discovered any hidden NC gems in your travels?

Yes! One of my favorite gems is re-discovering Asheville, NC—my birthplace. I moved away when I was seven and hadn’t really been back since elementary school, so returning through my work with ITTI Care has been a meaningful experience. I’ve been able to reconnect with family friends who have an apple farm, pass nostalgic places like the old Blockbuster, and enjoy the eclectic arts, Blue Ridge Parkway, and great local eateries in the small towns around it.

You also launched CCFP's Equity in Research Learning Collaborative. How has that work influenced your experience in CCFP?

Initiating the Equity in Research Learning has been an incredibly fulfilling experience. This initiative fostered a community of researchers dedicated to integrating equity principles into their methodologies and engagement practices. This work has enhanced my experience at CCFP by reinforcing the importance of applying an equity lens at every stage of research—from study design to dissemination—especially by engaging in critical conversations and interdisciplinary reflection that supports all that are involved on a research team. Cross collaboration with my colleagues has helped me learn so much more about the resources and rich expertise we have within our Center.

You started the InventHERs Institute in partnership with Dr. Shani Daily in Pratt, can you tell us about that project?

The InventHERs Institute is a program I co-founded with the support of The Duke L.I.F.T. Lab (Dr. Shani Daily,* Sandra Roach, Alia Carter, and Karis Boyd-Sinkler) from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Stemming from my dissertation research I wanted to continue to support girls and their caregivers in STEM education. The initiative includes using the engineering design process to engage in: (a) hands-on engineering activities that encourage problem-solving and innovation of real-world problems and (b) mentorship from undergraduate students in engineering, psychology, child policy, and computer science, helping young girls envision themselves as future engineers.

By providing these experiences and a multi-layered mentoring model, InventHERs builds STEM identity, confidence, and skill development for undergraduates, girls, and caregivers while providing access to STEM education. Moments like these reaffirm why I do this work—to create powerful spaces where girls feel valued, seen, and heard as they are using their creativity and imagination to shape the future of STEM.

*Note: special thanks to Berkeley Yorkery and Joseph McNicholas for connecting me with Shani.

Please give an example of a research project you have worked on at the Center that you are particularly proud of (if you want to highlight another project).

One project I am especially proud of is the North Carolina Resilience and Learning Project through the Public School Forum. Along with Katie Rosanbalm and Sonya Ulrich, we examine the outcomes and evaluation of how schools implement trauma-informed practices to support student well-being and academic success. The Resilience and Learning team is passionate about this work even when faced with adversity. This work has led to transformative trauma-informed for educators, ensuring that schools prioritize social-emotional learning, responsive teaching, and student mental health. Seeing this shape district-wide initiatives and teacher training programs has been incredibly rewarding.

How is being part of the Center unique compared to your experience at other institutions?

CCFP is unique because of its interdisciplinary approach and its commitment to translating research into actionable policy. Rather than just focusing on theoretical aspects, CCFP is driven to collaborate with changemakers as wells as those who are needed to make shifts such as future researchers/students, educators, policymakers, and community organizations. The Center also provides a rich collaborative environment, allowing me to work across education, policy, psychology, and health disciplines.

What’s one way you’ve seen your research impact policy at a local, state, or federal level (or, one way you hope to see it impact policy)?

Looking ahead, I hope that through collaborative work on ITTI Care and trauma-informed education, the state of North Carolina shifts policy to integrated workforce wellness into the early childhood education standards. I hope that our work encourages the state to provide more funding for early childcare spaces and sees how essential this group of people is to our economic development. Additionally, in the future, I hope that my work with the Duke L.I.F.T. Lab encourages more schools and communities to embed engineering and technology into their content while increasing teacher training and funding for STEM at the K-12 level, especially from Pre-K to 5th grade.

What’s something people might not know about your research that you want people to know?

Many assume my research focuses solely on education, but at its core, it is about identity development, access, and institutional transformation. It is about interdisciplinary aspects of education, psychology, and policy--reshaping how we understand and support children and families in educational systems whether it be in the classroom, in the home, or in community settings.

If you had to choose just one, what is a takeaway from your research that you would want to share?

Representation and being responsive to individual needs matter. Whether in STEM education, trauma-informed teaching, or workforce development, when people see themselves reflected in learning spaces, they feel empowered to persist, succeed, and contribute meaningfully.

What’s one of your favorite stories or memories from your years at CCFP?

One of my favorite memories is having the privilege of mentoring students. Jasmin Riley is a research assistant and Samuel DuBois Cook Awardee, while Reagan Razon who is focusing on broadening participation in computing and Neleh Hopper who is focusing on the intersection of Black women and health are Morris Fellows at the Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP). They have engaged in rigorous curriculum development and research focused on pressing issues affecting children and families, aiming to inform policy solutions that drive meaningful change. As their mentor, I have worked closely all of them to support their research development, helping them refine their methodologies, analyze data, and contextualize their findings within broader policy discussions. Seeing all of them find joy in reaching their milestones and seeing a fresh perspective of how to approach curriculum development and research has challenged me and helped me grow as a mentor.