Stephanie Kennedy is an implementation specialist with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. She is passionate about improving the lives of youth and families by transforming their systems of support. She provides technical assistance, coaching, consultation, and implementation support on initiatives in education, public health, and social services facilitating improvements in child health and wellbeing. She supports organizations and agencies at the local and state levels in building implementation capacity using implementation science strategies and best practices.

Stephanie’s projects at NIRN span several parts of youth-serving systems. She is the co-principal investigator on the Virginia Evidence-Based Practices Transformation Zone Project, supporting a multi-agency State Design and Implementation Team to utilize implementation science best practices for a behavioral health initiative using a Transformation Zone approach. In addition, Stephanie provides implementation-focused professional learning on the Reach Out and Read (ROR) Carolinas Demonstration Project. Her efforts support North Carolina pediatric practitioners’ ability to promote early childhood literacy by increasing their capacity for implementation of the ROR program in primary care settings across the state. Stephanie also provides technical assistance and implementation support to learning partners on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC) project to support implementation of high-quality middle years math curricula.

In her previously held experiences, Stephanie developed and supported learning communities, training cohorts, and communities of practice for public health and mental health researchers and practitioners across the country.