ELIZABETH DEVANEY, MM
Director, Whole Child Connection

Elizabeth Devaney is the Director of the Whole Child Connection at Children’s Institute in Rochester, NY. In that role she coordinates research andcapacity buildingrelated to social and emotional learning (SEL)in out-of-school-timeprograms, schools, and early childhood centersacross the state of New York. Devaney co-chairs Rochester’s Expanded Learning Time Collection Action Network and its subcommittee focused on developing an SEL framework for the ELO community. Devaney has over 15 years of experience in implementing and studying programs designed to support youth outside of schools hours as they grow and develop socially, emotionally and academically. Prior to the Children’s Institute, she was a researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) where she studiedthe implementation and impact of highquality afterschool programs with a particular emphasis onthe intersection between research and practice. Devaney has co-authored several guidesfor afterschool and school-based practitioners, includingBeyond the Bell®: Atoolkit for creating effective afterschool and expanded learning programsandSustainable schoolwide social and emotional learning (SEL): Implementation guide and toolkit. Previously, she served as Deputy Director of the Providence After School Alliancewhere she developed and implemented aquality improvement system for the state of Rhode Island and oversaw the organization’s research and evaluation activities. She was also aproject director at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Devaney was a William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow recipient in 2009. She received her masters degree in social policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University.