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 has been at IEL for over 12 years and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Over her tenure she has led and contributed to IEL’s strategy, several frameworks and guides for the field, including Youth Voice in Community Schools, Building a Community Schools System, Opening Doors, Changing Futures, launched and grew the Coalition for Community Schools Research Practice Network, and accelerated innovation in Education Policy Fellowship ProgramTM, policy, data, communications, and various programmatic areas.
Helen is recognized both nationally and internationally in the areas of youth development and educational change. She serves as Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA) Advisory Board Co-Chair, is the Founding Series Editor of the Emerald Publishing’s Current Issues in Out-of-School Time book series (producing 8 volumes), was recently a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine consensus study member of the report, The Future of Youth Development, and is an 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. Â
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. Â
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.Â
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 FundraisingÂ