Kantahyanee Murray, PhD

Kantahyanee Murray, PhD

Senior Associate Director

Kantahyanee Murray is an experienced researcher, evaluator, and social sector leader. She is a collaborative and creative problem solver and innovator, committed to advancing race equity and inclusion and catalyzing social change. Kantahyanee is a Senior Associate Director in the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement (CCRE) at MPHI. In this role she provides equitable and culturally responsive evaluation and technical assistance in collaboration with nonprofit human service and movement building organizations, public systems, and philanthropy. Kantahyanee’s collaborative evaluation work is grounded in strategies that seek equitable outcomes including approaches that center culture, context, and community; engage and share power with community members; and elevate data access and use across diverse stakeholders.

Previously Kantahyanee was a Senior Research Associate in the Research, Evaluation, Evidence and Data unit of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She planned, commissioned, and managed evaluations in the areas of youth and family well-being, evidence-based practice, and community safety. Kantahyanee helped design the Expanding the Bench (ETB) initiative in 2014, led its implementation, and facilitated transition of ETB to a field supported initiative in 2018. In prior work, she conducted community-based, state and federally supported research and evaluation at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the areas of child, youth and parent/caregiver health and well-being.