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Allison Metz (she/her/hers)

Professor of the Practice
Director of Implementation Practice

Allison Metz, Ph.D.

Contact

Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building

5th floor

325 Pittsboro Street

CB 3550

Chapel Hill, NC 27599

allison.metz@unc.edu

O: 202-714-4576

http://implementationpractice.org

Allison Metz, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist with expertise in child development and family systems and a commitment to improving child and family outcomes and advancing equity. Allison specializes in the implementation of evidence to achieve social impact for children and families in a range of human service and education areas, with an emphasis on child welfare and early childhood service contexts. Allison is Professor of the Practice and Director of Implementation Practice at the School of Social Work, Faculty Fellow at the FPG Child Development Institute, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Global Public Health at The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. Allison previously served as Director of the National Implementation Research Network and Lead of the Implementation Science Division at the FPG Child Development Institute where she also served as a Senior Research Scientist for 13 years. Allison’s research interests include the role of trust, power and relationships in evidence use, competencies for supporting implementation, and co-creation strategies to support sustainable change. She is particularly interested in the development of a workforce for supporting implementation in public systems. Allison is co-chair of the Institute on Implementation Practice and founding director of the Collaborative for Implementation Practice at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work. She is the co-editor of the widely read volume Applying Implementation Science in Early Childhood Programs and Systems.

Degrees and Licenses

Ph.D., Catholic University of America

Primary Program

Collaborative for Implementation Practice

Certifications

Certified Leadership Coach, Tavistock Institute for Human Relations

Research and Professional Interests

Trust, power, and relationships in evidence use
Co-creation and co-production
Competencies for professionals who support implementation and scaling efforts

Principal Investigator

Steps to Success, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Ready for School, Ready for Life, The Duke Endowment
Building Trusting Relationships to Support Evidence Use in Human Services, William T. Grant Foundation

Recent Publications

Metz, A., Albers, B., Burke, K., Bartley, L., Louison, L., Ward, C., & Farley, A. (2021). Implementation Practice in Human Service Systems: Understanding the Principles and Competencies of Professionals Who Support Implementation. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 1-22.

Albers, B., Metz, A., & Burke, K. (2020). Implementation support practitioners–a proposal for consolidating a diverse evidence base. BMC Health Services Research, 20, 1-10.

Albers, B., Metz, A., Burke, K., Bührmann, L., Bartley, L., Driessen, P., & Varsi, C. (2021). Implementation support skills: Findings from a systematic integrative review. Research on Social Work Practice, 31(2), 147-170.

Metz, A., Boaz, A. and Powell, B. (2019) A research protocol for studying participatory processes in the use of evidence in child welfare systems, Evidence & Policy, vol xx, no x, 1–15, DOI: 10.1332/174426419X15579811791990

Metz, A., Boaz, A., & Robert, G. (2019). Co-creative approaches to knowledge production: What next for bridging the research to practice gap? Evidence & Policy, vol xx, no x, 1–15, DOI: 10.1332