Biography

Dr. Connie Baird-Thomas is the Associate Director of the Social Science Center for Policy Studies and the Evaluation and Research Group at the Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University. She serves as external evaluator for the Gulf Scholars Project. In the area of program evaluation, Dr. Baird-Thomas’s experience includes: lead evaluator for the NSF CyberCorps Scholarship Program at Mississippi State University; lead evaluator for the Mississippi Department of Human Services Preschool Development Grant (PDG-5) (US Department of Health and Human Services); and project scientist on the evaluation team for Project AWARE in Mississippi (SAMHSA). She also leads the Mississippi Data Project, which provides data support for Mississippi grantees of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dr. Baird-Thomas’s research also has been funded by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Planning, the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Office of Rural Health Policy (HRSA). Her work has been published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, International Journal of Crime, Criminal Justice and the Law, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.