Jen Juras, PhD – Associate

Jennifer Juras joined the Samuels Center in 2013. Currently, Jen is working on the evaluation team for the Health for Oakland’s People and Environment (HOPE) Collaborative, Kern County’s Community Transformation Grant, and San Joaquin County’s Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention (NEOP) initiative. She is experienced in leading evaluations of initiatives that feature youth-adult partnerships, community organizing, and systems, policy, and environmental change to improve community health on areas that include community underage alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention; increasing community access to healthy foods; and improving school climate and bullying prevention. She has expertise in partnering with young people on research and evaluation and has developed toolkits and webinars and provided training across the state to support youth action research and evaluation.

Prior to joining the Samuels Center, Jen directed research and evaluation for the Youth Leadership Institute. In that role, she worked with youth leaders and adult partners statewide to measure the outcomes of youth driven community change work. She was also the Research Director for the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, where she served as evaluator for cross-sector collaborative initiatives to improve statewide public defense, prevent community violence, address over-representation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system, and reduce the number of young people overall who have contact with the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems.

Jen has a Ph.D in Community Psychology, with concentrated coursework in Evaluation Research, from Michigan State University. She is originally from the Midwest (Chicago and northern Wisconsin) and enjoys participating in triathlons, long distance trail running, creative writing, and making wine.