Email Helen at maloneh@iel.org
Dr. Helen Janc Malone is dedicated to advancing policies, research, and practices that change systems in support of children, youth, and families. She is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and Secretary of the Board. She has over 25 years of professional experience at the intersection of Community Schools, out-of-school time learning, education policy, and systems change. Helen is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and oversees IEL’s strategy, policy (Everyone: An Advocate), data (internal impact, research, external evaluations, and the Coalition for Community Schools Research Practice Network), and communications. She has been with IEL for over 11 years, supporting along the way the Education Policy Fellowship ProgramTM (EPFP), education policy and research initiatives (including serving as Co-PI on federal and philanthropic grants), institutional advancement, and has co-authored several IEL’s frameworks and guides, including Youth Voice in Community Schools, Building a Community Schools System, Opening Doors, Changing Futures.
Helen has expertise in out-of-school time learning (OST) and school-family-community partnerships. She is the Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA) Advisory Board Co-Chair, Founding Series Editor of the Emerald Publishing’s Current Issues in Out-of-School Time book series (producing 8 volumes), serves on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine consensus study focused on OST, and is a recent alum of the American Express Leadership Academy. She was one of the co-founders and a former Chair of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Out-of-School Time Special Interest Group (SIG) and has prior to IEL supported OST evaluations Statewide Networks, and student leadership.
Within educational change, she is a former Chair of the AERA Educational Change SIG where she created and served as the founding editor of the Lead the Change series, has served on several domestic and international boards in this area, and has prior worked on Comprehensive School Reform, and at state K-12 and higher education levels.
Helen has authored over 50+ publications, facilitated 100+ workshops and webinars, served on 6+ publication boards, 14 academic publications, and has mentored dozens of grad students and early career professionals. Her select journal issues and books include: Bridging Educational Change Through Partnership (Journal of Educational Change, 21, 2020); The Role of Context in Scaling Up Educational Change (Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 17(3), 2018); The Growing Out-of-School Time Field: Past, Present, and Future (Information Age Publishing, 2018, co-edited book); The Future Directions in Educational Change: Social Justice, Professional Capital, and Systems Change (Routledge, 2018, co-edited book); Collaborative Partnerships for Systems Change (Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 2(4), 2017). She has given lectures domestically and internationally and has appeared in mass media, including PBS, C-SPAN, and has run two Education Week blogs. Helen holds Ed.D. in education policy, leadership, and instructional practice from Harvard University. She is also a certified Results-Based AccountabilityTM professional.
Areas of expertise: Community Schools, Youth Engagement/Leadership, Leadership Development and Capacity Building, Policy/Advocacy, Out-of-School Time Learning Program Design/Implementation/Support, Event Planning and Logistics, Grant Development/Writing and Fundraising