Jessica McDuff, MA, is a senior Associate at Altarum Institute specializing in behavioral health and has 12 years of experience working with federal, state and local entities to develop, assess and improve behavioral health systems of care for individuals and families. She is currently supporting several projects within the Center for Healthy Child and Youth Development, including evaluation of health promotion initiatives conducted by the YMCA of the USA and evaluation of the Eat Well Play Hard in Day Care Homes project.

Ms. McDuff has served as project manager on a number of evaluations for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Veterans Administration. In this role, Ms. McDuff developed project work plans and budgets; led the collection of primary and secondary data in the form of surveys, interviews, focus groups and program documents and data; conducted qualitative and quantitative data analysis; and led the development of analytic reports and products.

Ms. McDuff also served as a senior analyst for a project to synthesize and describe the activities occurring across the Department of Defense to prevent childhood obesity. Ms. McDuff assisted in gathering information from military bases and offices, conducting qualitative analysis to determine similarities and promising practices implemented across DoD, and developing a report on activities and promising practices related to the prevention of childhood obesity that was provided to the White House to support the Let’s Move! campaign.