Allison Dymnicki

In my work with federal agencies over the last 15 years on violence prevention, social emotional learning, mental health and homelessness, the idea of translating research to practice has become increasingly important. We know there is a gap between what we discover through research and what is applied by practitioners, funders and policymakers. 

Over the past decade, federal agencies — and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in particular — have sought to learn more about the ‘science’ of implementing programmes, practices and policies. They want to invest smartly and do a better job of ensuring the most evidence-based decisions. These are noble goals — especially during this pandemic, when health and human service organizations are being asked to do things they have never done before, with lightning speed. Unfortunately, it gets complicated fast: Each field has its own terminology, frameworks and measures, making it difficult to synthesise information and create a shared body of knowledge across disciplines. So where do we start? 

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