Georgia Hall
Associate Director, Wellesley Centers for Women
Director, National Institute on Out-of-School Time
Ph.D., Boston College
ghall@wellesley[dot]edu \ Phone: 781-283-2530
Leads national studies on youth development programs, settings, and learning experiences, with a focus on out-of-school time, physical activity, and healthy eating; Directs the National Institute on Out-of-School Time
Georgia Hall, Ph.D., is director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW). Hall specializes in research and evaluation on youth development programs, settings, and learning experiences. Her work has focused extensively on strategies to improve out-of-school time program quality along with investigations of summer learning programs and STEM initiatives for girls. Hall serves as principal investigator on several multi-year research projects and is a frequent presenter at national conferences, seminars, and meetings.
Current Work
In 2015, Hall began working in collaboration with Global Evaluation and Applied Research Solution (GEARS) on the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) State Monitoring and Technical Assistance Project with the U.S. Department of Education. As principal investigator on this project, Hall gathers data on program improvement, provides technical expertise to state education agencies, and provides the U.S. Department of Education with fiscal, analytical, and logistic services to monitor grant compliance. Hall is also the technical assistance and training partner to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 21st CCLC Program. In this role, Hall develops, tests, and refines tools to measure youth outcomes and out-of-school time program quality.
The NIOST Afterschool Matters Initiative, also directed by Hall, includes the National Afterschool Matters (NASM) Fellowship Program and Afterschool Matters, a journal for out-of-school time practitioners, researchers, and other related professionals. As principal investigator on this initiative, Hall is managing editor of the journal and facilitates an intensive professional development opportunity in which out-of-school time professionals advance their own practice to improve program quality and experiences for children and youth. Funding for these activities has been generously provided by the Robert Bowne Foundation.
In December 2014, Hall began working as the principal investigator for the American Museum of Natural History’s BridgeUp: STEM program. For this project, Hall is tracking the experiences of high school girls enrolled in a computational science program at the Museum to understand the participants’ changes in attitude and interest toward STEM careers and aspirations.
Since 2012, Hall has been collaborating with Boston After School & Beyond, Boston Public Schools, and local community-based organizations to measure program quality and common youth program outcomes during the summer and the school year. Hall also continues to work as a research and evaluation partner to the Providence After School Alliance.
Recently, Hall began work as co-investigator on the Quality to Outcomes Study, funded by the MOTT Foundation. Hall works in partnership with the Massachusetts and Minnesota Departments of Education and the American Institutes for Research to study how high-quality out-of-school time programs can promote participants’ literacy development and the role social and emotional learning may play in supporting the development of literacy-related skills. The study will be undertaken in 21st CCLCs in Massachusetts and Minnesota that have a demonstrated capacity and track record of providing high-quality afterschool programming over several years.
Featured Projects
Several of Hall’s projects have focused on how out-of-school time (OST) environments can promote healthy behaviors and thereby reduce children’s risk of obesity and chronic disease. Hall served as principal investigator on a national study of physical activity and healthy eating practices in OST programs funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Hall was also funded through RWJF for three commissioned analysis projects to examine the uptake of the new National AfterSchool Association Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards, which Hall co-authored in 2011 through the HOST Coalition. This work included collaborating with the National AfterSchool Association member organizations and designing, collecting, synthesizing, and reporting on standards participation data.
Hall directs NIOST’s participation on the HOST (Healthy Out-of-School Time) Coalition -- a growing network of over 50 youth organization leaders, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders -- working in partnership with the National AfterSchool Association, the YMCA of the USA, The Afterschool Alliance, the National Recreation and Park Association, and Alliance for a Healthier Generation to foster health and wellbeing practices in out-of-school time programs nationwide, using science-based standards for healthy eating, physical activity, screen time, and social supports for these behaviors including staff, family, and child engagement.
Hall also served as principal investigator for After School Gets Moving. This was a randomized control trial study of the impacts of a professional development resource for out-of-school time program staff on children’s pedometer step counts in a national sample of OST programs. Hall has served for three years as the principal investigator for a research study on BOKS, a before school physical activity program sponsored by the Reebok Foundation. Hall partnered with the BOKS program of the Reebok Foundation for five years investigating physical activity and learning outcomes associated with participation in a before-school physical activity program.
Background
Hall’s work has included management of many types of large research and technical assistance projects including supervising logistics, development and execution of fieldwork and data collection systems, data processing, analysis, and reporting, and overall communication and collaboration with project partners and funders.
