Summary
Alicia D. Summers, Ph.D., is Director of Data Savvy Consulting, LLC, where she conducts applied research and evaluation at the intersection of psychology and law, focusing on child welfare court systems. She also serves as Director of Research for the Center for Legal and Judicial Innovation and Advancement, providing technical assistance to courts and court improvement programs. She provides evaluation and data consultation at the local, state, and national levels, including work with state court administration and organizations such as the National Center for State Courts and the American Bar Association. Summers spent over a decade at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges conducting court practice evaluations.
Research interests
- Judicial decision-making
- Hearing quality
- Court performance measurement
Selected publications
- Summers, A. (2023). Exploring Indian Child Welfare Act implementation and case outcomes. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Special Issue: Examining ICWA Implementation Practice and Outcomes, 74(1), 37-50.
- Summers, A., & Gatowski, S. I. (2024). A multimethod exploration of the COVID-Era transition to virtual hearings in child welfare court cases. Child Maltreatment, 10775595241231547.
- Summers, A., Gatowski, S. I., & Gueller, M (2017). Examining hearing quality in child abuse and neglect cases: The relationship between breadth of discussion and case outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 82, 490-498.
- Summers, A., Gatowski, S., & Dobbin, S. (2012). Terminating parental rights: The relation of judicial experience and expectancy-related factors to risk perceptions in child protection cases. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 18, 95-112.
- Summers, A., & Woodruff, K. (2026). From learning to the bench: enhanced judicial practice following Judicial Academies on reasonable efforts. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1-23.
- Summers, A., Wood, S., Russell, J., & Macgill, S. (2012). An evaluation of the effectiveness of a parent-to-parent program in changing attitudes and increasing parental engagement in the juvenile dependency system. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 2036-2041.
Courses taught
Alicia Summers has taught the Social Science and Law course and the Science and Justice of Child Welfare and Juvenile Courts for the Judicial Studies Graduate Program.
Education
- Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Social Psychology with a focus in Social Psychology and Law, University of Nevada, Reno