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Phyllis Levine

Senior Education Researcher

Phyllis Levine, Ph.D., has been in the special education and disability profession for 30 years and brings extensive experience in applied research in education, health care, and social services for children, youth, and adults with diverse disabilities. Her expertise is rooted in a broad spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research that looks at individuals with disabilities across the life span and from multiple perspectives.

Since joining SRI in 1999, Dr. Levine has taken an active role on the design, analyses, and reporting teams for the second National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2), the Special Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (SEELS) and the design of the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS), financed by the U.S Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. She was also a member of the evaluation team for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Small High Schools Initiative, and was a key contributor to the design of a longitudinal study for this initiative.

In 2005 Dr. Levine took on the responsibility of Director of the Model Demonstration Coordination Center (MDCC) working closely with OSEP and several cohorts of model demonstration project grantees as they work to develop and assess promising practices in a range of topic areas. The Center’s work includes documenting effective practices in each of the cohort’s topic areas and identifying salient features of model demonstrations across cohorts that will help understand how to move from developing models of evidence-based practices to achieving their widespread use.

While Project Director and a faculty member at the University of Washington, Dr. Levine coordinated a wide variety of federally and state-funded research projects. These included the Washington State Decade Study, a 10-year longitudinal follow-along study of postsecondary outcomes for youth with and without disabilities; a tracking and intervention project for youth who were at risk of dropping out of school; a 3-year study of therapeutic child care for children who were abused and neglected; a study examining access to health care for people with disabilities living in rural communities and community-based strategies to overcome barriers; and a study of the prevalence and service needs of people with organic brain syndrome living in Alaska.

Before coming to SRI, Dr. Levine conducted a Kennedy Foundation-funded qualitative evaluation of an intensive therapeutic intervention for parents with developmental disabilities who have children at risk for out-of-home placement; and evaluated a “virtual on-line computer camp” and “e-mentoring” program for high-school-age youth living in Casey Family Programs long-term foster care.

Dr. Levine started her career as a special education teacher in an urban high school in Wilmington Delaware. She earned her Ph.D. in special education research from the University of Washington.