Hilary A (Abbie) Raikes, PhD

Associate Professor

Director of Global Early Childhood Development
Department of Health Promotion
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Professional Summary

• 2016 – Present, Assistant professor and director, global early childhood development, College of Public Health
• 2015-2016, Lead, Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes project, UNICEF
• 2012-2015, Program Specialist, Early Childhood Care and Education, UNESCO, Paris, France
• 2006-2011, Senior Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• 2005-2006, Research Associate, University of California, Berkeley

Education

• 2005, PhD, Developmental Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
• 1999, Master of Public Health, Columbia University, New York
• 1994, BA, Amherst College

Research interests

• Early childhood development, especially in low- and middle-income countries and in high-risk populations in the United States.
• Quality of children’s learning environments, with emphasis on preschool programs. 
• Measurement of child development and quality of learning environments. 
• Use of data to build, implement and improve early childhood programs and policies.

Selected Publications

• Berkes, J., Raikes, A., Bouguen, A., & Filmer, D. (2019). Joint roles of parenting and nutritional status for child development: Evidence from rural Cambodia. Developmental Science, e12874.
• Raikes, A., Davis, D., & Burton, A. (2019). Early childhood care and education in the era of sustainable development: Balancing local and global priorities.  In D. Suter & E. Smith (Eds)., Sage Handbook of Comparative International Studies.  London: Sage.
• Raikes, H., Raikes, A., Esteraich, J., Encinger, A., Garcia, A. S., Ucus, S., & Escalante, E. (2019). Non-parental caregiving. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of Parenting: Volume 3: Being and Becoming a Parent. New Jersey: Erlbaum.
• Raikes, A., Koziol, N., Janus, M., Platas, L., Weatherholt, T., Smeby, A., & Sayre, R. (2019). Examination of school readiness constructs in Tanzania: Psychometric evaluation of the MELQO scales. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 62, 122-134.
• Yoshikawa, H., Wuermli, A. J., Raikes, A., Kim, S., & Kabay, S. B. (2018). Toward high-quality early childhood development programs and policies at national scale: Directions for research in global contexts. Social Policy Report, 31(1).
• Raikes, A. (2017). Measuring of early childhood development.  European Journal of Education, 52 (4), 511-522.
• Fernald, L., Prado, E., Kariger, P., & Raikes, A. (2017). World Bank Early Childhood Development Toolkit.  Washington, DC: World Bank. 

Professional Affiliations

• Society for Research in Child Development