Michelle W. Woodbridge, Ph.D., has more than two decades of experience in research on and evaluation of children’s mental health services, educational practices, health and social services, and other community-based services. Woodbridge directs large-scale national, statewide, and local research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects in preschool through secondary school learning environments. Her expertise includes working with district and program leaders and practitioners to identify desired outcomes, develop strategies to achieve them, and design methods to collect and use high-quality data to improve program, youth, and family outcomes.

Woodbridge is co-principal investigator of multiple U.S. Department of Education (ED)-funded research trials of school-based interventions for students with or at risk for disabilities. Currently, she codirects the

• efficacy trial of Discipline in the Secondary Classroom, a proactive approach to enhancing positive behavior and academic engagement of high school students;
• effectiveness trial of Tools for Getting Along, a social problem-solving curriculum for elementary school students; and
• efficacy trial of Foundations, a positive approach to schoolwide discipline.

In addition, she is co-principal investigator of the National Institute of Justice-funded study of school safety and trauma-informed services in a large urban school district. Woodbridge also recently completed an efficacy trial for ED of the Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools program, an intervention to improve the behavior and academic performance of students who have experienced traumatic stress.

Formerly, Woodbridge codirected the National Effectiveness Study of First Step to Success, a large-scale randomized trial of an early intervention for children at risk for developing antisocial or aggressive behaviors. Additionally, she codirected the National Behavior Research Coordination Center, which supported randomized trials conducted by university partners to build the evidence base for interventions to improve outcomes for young students with severe emotional and behavior disorders.

Woodbridge also has extensive experience in technical assistance and professional capacity building; she recently led the training, coaching, and technical support activities for the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia, which partners with education stakeholders to use rigorous research and evidence to inform policies and practices that benefit students in the Appalachian region. As a subcontractor to RAND Corporation, Woodbridge was co-principal investigator on the evaluation and technical assistance team of the California Mental Health Services Authority’s Prevention and Early Intervention Initiatives to provide resources for student mental health programs in public K–12 and college and university campuses. She also directed the provision of technical assistance for the Statewide Evaluation of First 5 California, including the management of technical assistance coaches in all 58 California counties.

Before joining SRI, Woodbridge was a senior policy researcher at Georgetown University’s Child Development Center, where she facilitated the capacity-building of states and communities in their evaluation of child and family services as part of the National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health.

Woodbridge is the author or coauthor of numerous articles, book chapters, practice guides, and presentations on the efficacy of student behavioral interventions, implementation and evaluation of systems of care for children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, participatory research practices and implementation science, inclusion of children with disabilities, and the use of evaluation data for program improvement and policy development.

Woodbridge received her Ph.D. in education with an emphasis in development and disabilities from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Key Projects

1. Efficacy Study of Discipline in the Secondary Classroom
2. Efficacy Study of Foundations, School-wide Positive Discipline for Middle Schools
3. Effectiveness Study of Tools for Getting Along: Teaching Students to Problem Solve
4. Students Exposed to Trauma: A Study of the CBITS Program
5. National Effectiveness Study of First Step to Success

Selected Publications

1. Screening for Trauma in Early Adolescence: Findings from a Diverse School District
2. Davies-Mercier, E., Woodbridge, M. W., Sumi, W. C., Thornton, S. P., Roundfield, K., Lee-St. John, T., Rouspil, K. M., & Yu, J. (2017). Traumatic experiences and associated symptomatology in Asian American middle school students. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 8(3), 209–223.
3. Factors Affecting Mental Health Service Utilization among California Public College and University Students: Who Accesses Resources and Who Doesn’t?
4. Implementation and Sustainability of an Evidence-Based Program Lessons Learned from the Prism Applied to First Step to Success
5. Does First Step to Success Have Long-Term Impacts on Student Behavior? An Analysis of Efficacy Trial Data