Heather L. Hanna

Dr. Hanna serves as Assistant Research Professor and Research Fellow for the Social Science Research Center (SSRC), where she has worked for over 14 years. During her time at the SSRC, Dr. Hanna has written, administered, and collaborated on grant projects addressing public policy and system change.

Currently, she serves as Co-Director for Mississippi KIDS COUNT, an Annie E. Casey-funded program that provides policy-relevant data, statistics and original research about the health, education, safety, and well-being of Mississippi’s children. She is also Co-Principal Investigator on a Health Resources & Services Administration-funded project designed to examine and strengthen the developmental health system for young children in Mississippi.

Previously, Dr. Hanna served as Principal Investigator for the Assessing Employee Attitudes and Beliefs toward the Strategic Habitat Conservation Model Project, which was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and utilized an all all-employee survey to examine bureaucratic change at the national level. She has also worked with the Family and Children’s Research Unit at the SSRC, focusing on policy and systems change related to education and health services for Mississippi’s children and families. These projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Center for Mississippi Health Policy, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others.

Dr. Hanna earned a PhD in public policy and administration and a MS in sociology from Mississippi State University (MSU). She received her undergraduate training in psychology at the University of Mississippi. She is a member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and was formerly named a Founders’ Forum Fellow for the American Society for Public Administration.