Teresa Eckrich Sommer
Research Professor at the Institute for Policy Research
Teresa Eckrich Sommer is a research professor at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. She studies the dual development of parents and children and the social mobility of families. Sommer is a leading scholar in the newly emerging two-generation research field which examines the implementation and impact of adding education and workforce development training programs for low-income parents to early childhood education services, such as Head Start, for children. She also studies the role of child and parent savings accounts in promoting college readiness and persistence across generations, two-generation programs and policies to support immigrant families, and family-centered approaches to improve the education and well-being of children whose parents have experienced incarceration. She holds an MA and a PhD in public policy from Harvard University.