Jacqueline McCroskey, DSW

Research Director

LA County Children and Families Research Consortium

J13

Jacquelyn McCroskey, DSW, is the John Milner Professor of Child Welfare at the USC School of Social Work.  Her research includes analysis of service financing, organization and performance measurement in public and not-for profit service delivery systems serving children and families in Los Angeles County.  She led development of the Family Assessment Form, a measure of family functioning now in wide use to guide assessment and measure the impact of family-centered child welfare services. Through her work with county, city and school district policy makers in Los Angeles, she has investigated inter-agency cooperation, community relations, and community development in a broad range of service areas, settings and organizational contexts. For over two decades, she has used data and scholarship to inform policy and guide improvements to government systems in order to improve outcomes for children and families. She is one of the founders of the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, a collaborative network of ten councils that has been called “possibly the strongest and most influential cross-system vehicle advocating for reform of children’s services system in a major US metropolitan area.”

She serves as a Commissioner on the First 5 LA Commission and as a member of the LA County Child Care Policy Roundtable.  She is Research Director of the LA County Department of Children and Family Services’ Children and Families Research Consortium.