Jessica V. Barnes-Najor, Ph.D., is the director for Community Partnerships, Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, Michigan State University. She is a developmental psychologist with a specialization in applied developmental science. Her work focuses on establishing research partnerships and identifying supports for increasing community capacity for engaging in research.

Barnes-Najor is a co-PI for the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, partnering with American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start, Home Visitation, and Child Care grantees to promote community-engaged research and enhance early childhood program evaluation and research-to-practice activities across the nation. She is also a co-PI of Wiba Anung, a research collaborative including educators from Bay Mills Community College and community partners representing nine Michigan tribes. Through Wiba Anung, Barnes-Najor has developed approaches for conducting culturally sensitive research in collaboration with American Indian and Alaska Native early childhood education programs. She has established a research program with the tribal Head Start centers and home visitation programs in Michigan that includes the use of methodology to assess child outcomes, family characteristics, and classroom quality.

Barnes-Najor was also involved in the development of and training for a framework for incorporating American Indian and Alaska Native language and culture into evidence-based curricula for Head Start programs (“Making it Work!”). She extended this work by supporting a Home Visitation grantee’s efforts to build a home visiting curriculum using the “Making it Work!” framework.