Cynthia Osborne

Cynthia Osborne is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and Policy in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Osborne is the founder and Executive Director of the national Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, an academic research center that translates the science of the developing child into state level policies with the strongest evidence base of effectiveness. Osborne’s teaching and research interests focus on social policy, poverty and inequality, family and child wellbeing, and family demography. She has extensive experience leading long-term evaluations of state and national programs, intending to help organizations understand what works and ensure sustainable and equitable implementation of effective policies. She serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s committee, Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children Birth to Age 8, and prior to that, was appointed to NASEM’s Committee On Building An Agenda To Reduce The Number Of Children In Poverty By Half In 10 Years. She recently served as Vice President of the Policy Council for the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). Osborne holds a Ph.D. in demography and public affairs from Princeton University, a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Master of Arts in education from Claremont Graduate University. Previously she taught sixth grade in a lower-income community in California.