Clare Waterman, PhD

Now the Senior Director of Research for Child Care Aware® of America, Dr. Clare Waterman is a highly experienced researcher and evaluator. She has 15 years of experience leading studies that guide early care and education leaders and policymakers in improving outcomes for children, families, and communities. She brings extensive expertise in measurement, quantitative and qualitative research methods, policy analysis, mixed methods evaluations, research-practitioner partnerships, and technical assistance. Her research focuses on identifying strategies to improve early childhood education.

Before joining Child Care Aware® of America, Waterman served as a Research Scientist for Education Development Center, where she co-founded the Partnership for Early Education Research (PEER) and the Vermont Universal PreK Research Partnership and Early Childhood Workforce Development Research Alliance for REL Northeast & Islands at EDC. Prior to her role at EDC, Waterman served as a Research Specialist for Providence Public School District where she assisted school and district leaders in using data to inform policy and practice. In this role, Waterman worked closely with the district’s lowest performing schools to improve student learning.

Waterman received an M.S.Ed. in Human Development, an M.S. in Quantitative Methods, and a Ph.D. in Policy, Research, Evaluation, and Measurement from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. She was an IES Pre-doctoral Training Fellow from 2007–2011.