PolicyLab

Emily Alexander (she/her) is a clinical research study lead at PolicyLab and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In her role, Emily works in the Adolescent Depression Prevention and Treatment (ADePT) Lab with Dr. Jami Young. She coordinates studies focused on enhancing and disseminating interventions for adolescent depression and suicidality, as well as a project aimed at strengthening school- and district-level capacity to implement, evaluate, and sustain Tier 1 and 2 school mental health services.

Prior to joining CHOP, Emily was a program manager in the Office of Evaluation, Research, and Accountability at the School District of Philadelphia, where she partnered with external and internal stakeholders to evaluate and implement existing initiatives throughout the district. She has also previously worked as a clinical research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction, where she coordinated a longitudinal cohort study of adolescent tobacco and e-cigarette uptake and an adult smoking cessation clinical trial.

Emily graduated from The George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She received a master's degree in education in prevention science and practice from Harvard Graduate School of Education. During her graduate program, Emily conducted qualitative research on the state-by-state policy landscape of the school counseling profession and led a project examining the experiences of school counselors during the COVID-19 pandemic. These analyses were published in Professional School Counseling (“We are the heartbeat of the school”: How school counselors supported student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Emily strives to bring an equity lens to all aspects of the project planning and research processes. Her research interests include improving school-based mental health services; using qualitative, participatory research methodologies to give voice to community members’ lived experiences; and promoting research findings to advance social action and policy changes.