Melissa Van Dyke, PhD, is an Implementation Scientist-Practitioner and the Director of the Active Implementation Research Network (AIRN). In 2005, Melissa joined Karen and Dean at the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) and provided implementation science expertise while leading and coordinating community, state, and federal initiatives to support effective practices in mental health, child welfare, education, criminal justice, and early childhood. In 2015, Melissa was recruited to serve as the International Expert Advisor on Implementation at the Centre of Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Melissa continues to provide leadership on grants and contracts to build capacity in governmental and NGO organizations, communities, and systems, within the United States and internationally, to support effective implementation of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and policies.

Fiona Mitchell comes to AIRN with more than 20 years of experience working in evidence translation, implementation support, and evaluation expertise in the United Kingdom. She is a trained Implementation Practitioner who is experienced at guiding individuals, teams, and organizations to integrate knowledge and skills in applying evidence to practice development, building implementation capacity, and in the collection and use of data to evaluate progress. From 2015 to 2021, Fiona worked at the Centre of Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) at the University of Strathclyde. During this time, she led and contributed to strengthening evidence-informed practices in child welfare and protection and was part of implementation capacity building efforts across Scotland. In 2018 – 2019, Fiona was co-chair of the program planning committee for the 2019 Global Implementation Conference, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland.

Dean Fixsen, PhD, is an implementation scientist. In the 1960s he was a co-developer of the Teaching-Family Model, an early example of an evidence-based program. In the 1970s he and his colleagues began replicating the program. That experience introduced Dean and his colleagues to implementation practice and science. Over the next 20 years successful replication and scaling supports were developed and evaluated and those became the foundations of the Active Implementation Frameworks (AIF). Dean led a comprehensive review and synthesis of the interdisciplinary implementation research literature in 2003-2005 that added to the evidence base for the AIF. Since then Dean has led proactive use of AIF methods and measures to establish and study the development of implementation capacity in human service systems.

Karen Blase, PhD, engaged in pioneering work related to scaling up and sustaining evidence-based practices for youth involved with the juvenile justice system. She worked extensively in western North Carolina and then nationally at Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home to help organizations in North America employ the evidence-based treatment approach used by Boys Town. Karen developed coaching for competence and has widely shared her expertise in fostering practice-based coaching and developing coaching systems. As a board member and president of national professional associations, Karen has supported the scaling and sustainability of evidence-based residential treatment, treatment foster care, and inclusive, early intervention programs.

Becci Akin, PhD, is an AIRN Board Member and Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas. Becci spent her early social work career in child welfare as a caseworker and policy advocate. She also worked in community-based agencies as a macro practitioner on a wide range of human service and community issues. Becci has taught at the BSW, MSW and PhD levels, including courses in community practice, social work policy, research methods, and community-engaged program design and evaluation. In addition, she has collaborated with other faculty to develop a child welfare certificate program in the School.

Caryn Ward, PhD, is an AIRN Board Member with more than 15 years of leadership in implementation and scaling of evidence-based practices in K-12 education, as well as in other fields, including early learning, child welfare, and public health. Caryn has served as the Principal Investigator and Director for federally funded national technical assistance centers and mixed methods experimental implementation studies.

Mihaela Manole is a Board Member and social scientist with experience in research, policy, and program development concerning vulnerable children and young people, citizenship, and participation. In her current role at Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection at the University of Strathclyde, she focuses on promoting the use of evidence in policy formulation and supporting capacity building in the use of data for improvement. In addition, she is building expertise in supporting the operationalization of effective practices and the development of measurements that will allow for the assessment of fidelity and outcomes relating to use of effective practices.