FPG People
Patrice Neal, Ph.D.
Investigator
nealp@mail.fpg.unc.edu
PH: 919.843.8538
FAX: 919.843.5784
Mailing Address:
Campus Box 8185
The University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8185
Patrice Neal, Ph.D., is an Investigator at the FPG Child Development Institute and completed her doctoral studies in the Early Intervention and Family Support Program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research has focused on the measurement of family outcomes associated with participation in Part C early intervention services for infants and toddlers with special needs. She co-authored a measure, the Family Benefits Inventory, piloted in a state-level accountability study and subsequently revised and used in a statewide policy study.
Neal serves as Principal Investigator for the NC Collaborative Outcomes Project, an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded General Supervision Enhancement Grant (GSEG). The project is designed to improve state capacity for measuring and reporting child and family outcome data in a manner that is integrated across early childhood accountability initiatives. She also served as Principal Investigator for Project LEAD, an OSEP-funded grant focused on the creation of a comprehensive research-based leadership development model for community early childhood program administrators.
Among her outreach activities, Neal chairs a committee of the North Carolina Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC), which advises and assists in state efforts related to measuring and reporting child and family outcomes for participants in state programs under Part C & Part B 619 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Active in the field since the mid-1970s, she has worked directly with young children and their families as a classroom teacher and early interventionist in a number of public school special education and early childhood programs. Her experience also includes administration of a federally-mandated advisory body for planning, development, and implementation of the statewide system of early intervention services.
Academic honors include receipt of: the Logue Fellowship for Human Environmental Sciences for post graduate study in Family Relations and Child Development at Oklahoma State University; fellowship for the Early Intervention Leadership Training Program for doctoral studies in Education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and award of a competitive federal Student Initiated Research Project grant from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), US Department of Education.
