Experience

Dr. Jessica Strong brings twenty years of nonprofit sector experience to research and evaluation work, with roles spanning direct-service programs, employment support, adolescent-focused programs, and large national organizations. Her deepest experience is with military and veteran-serving communities, alongside broader work across the social service sector.

Over the course of her career, she has led applied research on military and veteran families, from literature reviews and needs assessments to survey design, data collection, and analysis and reporting. That research has informed audiences ranging from military and veteran families themselves to nonprofit organizations, philanthropic funders, senior military leaders, and members of Congress.

She has paired this research work with evaluation practice, building logic model and evaluation frameworks, protocols, and standard operating procedures to maintain continuity within these systems, and developing organization-wide evaluation models covering a variety of programming. Across this work, her focus stays on impact and creating lasting change.

Military and Veteran Focus

Dr. Strong's focus on military- and veteran-connected families grew out of standing beside her husband through 22 years of Army service, and from a career spent researching and serving this community. That career has included doctoral research on the experiences of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and seven years leading research on military and veteran families at a national nonprofit. Across that career, she saw real desire to support military and veteran families, often paired with limited resources to assess the population's real needs or measure how well programming worked.

Speaking & Media

Dr. Strong regularly presents at conferences, moderates panels, and participates in speaking engagements on military and veteran family issues, research, and evaluation.