Melissa Van Dyke, Ph.D.

Melissa Van Dyke, Ph.D., joined the CELCIS team in 2015, as the International Expert Advisor on Implementation at the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) and has a national role focused on building capacity within CELCIS and the children’s services and health sectors to adopt an implementation-informed approach to improvement. Melissa is currently leading a number of initiatives designed to improve health, early years, education, and social work practices with children and families’ services. Melissa was previously the Co-Director of the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina. In the United States, Melissa worked with state and federal initiatives related to scaling up evidence-based practices in education, evidence-based child abuse prevention programs and early childhood home visitation, leadership development in child welfare, and broad reform efforts in early childhood systems and criminal justice systems. Melissa worked in state government in the United States with families and youth in child welfare, children’s mental health, and the juvenile justice systems.