Meet The Research Analyst

Ashley Southerland has a Master’s of Social Work with a concentration in Community and Administrative Practice from the University of Texas at Arlington. She has ten years’ experience working with children and families. Before joining the Key Center for Learning Differences team, she worked for MHMR Tarrant as the IDD (Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities) Director of Intake & Access where she designed, planned and implemented new programs and, managed the day to day operations of intake/eligibility, while constantly evaluating for efficiencies or improvements in service delivery. She completed an internship with the City of Fort Worth last spring completing an evaluation of the Lead Safe Program that provides lead abetment services to children and families. During her time at the City she analyzed service gap and barriers to services. She also analyzed processes, conducted surveys, held focus group’s, conducted outcomes and outputs analysis, interviewed staff, and evaluated the grant application against program implementation.
In her current role as the Research Analyst for the Center, she evaluates outcomes, collects and analyzes data, evaluates curriculum and establishes best teaching practices through her research. She is passionate and motivated to help the community better understand how to effectively support all children with learning differences through her research and evaluation.
Ashley resides in Irving with her husband, Jared and son Maddox.