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Erika Gaylor

Early Childhood Researcher

Erika Gaylor, Ph.D., focuses on research and program evaluation related to early childhood and the impact of various contexts in young children's lives, including family, early care and education programs, and community initiatives.

Since joining SRI, Dr. Gaylor provided technical assistance to in the Statewide Data Collection and Evaluation of First 5 California Funded Programs. She also has worked on a strategic planning project to create an integrated, comprehensive initiative aimed at improving early care and education in Omaha, Nebraska. Currently, Dr. Gaylor serves as liaison to early childhood language intervention projects as part of the Office of Special Education Programs' Model Demonstration Coordination Center and is the project director for the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation's St. Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program evaluation, which is examining community, program, family, and child outcomes of a market-oriented ECE quality initiative. She also is project director of the Pre-K Allowances Exploratory Project, a state-funded initiative in Minnesota to improve school readiness.

Before joining SRI, Dr. Gaylor was an evaluator in a private, nonprofit mental health agency serving children and families in the greater Bay Area. She has extensive experience conducting clinical and laboratory research studies, including developing diagnostic criteria for pediatric sleep disorders, examining the effects of antidepressant exposure in utero on infant development, and conducting clinical research studies of children diagnosed with PTSD.

Dr. Gaylor has considerable experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research, including designing research projects; recruiting and coordinating research sites; collecting survey, interview, and observational data; training and supervising research assistants; managing databases; coding, analyzing, and interpreting data; and writing articles and reports for both academic and nonacademic audiences.

Dr. Gaylor earned her Ph.D. in human development from the University of California, Davis. She also holds an M.S. degree in child development from UC Davis and a B.S. degree in psychology from the University of Iowa.