Faculty & Staff Details
Amy Vargo
Assistant in Research
Division of State and Local Support
Brief Biography
Amy Vargo, M.A., is a faculty member in the Department of Child & Family Studies at USF-FMHI and is completing her doctorate in Applied Anthropology.
She serves as principal investigator for Florida’s Title IV-E Waiver evaluation, as well as the statewide evaluation of Community-Based Care and Residential Group Care Programs and has served as organizational analyst to this program evaluation for the past six years. In this role she has accumulated valuable experience regarding the evaluation of privatized child welfare systems as well as the measurement of quality, cost, and system level outcomes.
Additional research experience includes serving as principal investigator of the Child Welfare Prepaid Mental Healthcare Evaluation, a study focused on examining the mental health needs of children in foster care receiving Medicaid-funded mental health services through Florida’s newly implemented carve out program.
Ms. Vargo has also served as principal investigator of the Foster Care Child Resiliency Study, examining resiliency and social capital of children in temporary shelter as well as long term, group foster care. Of particular interest methodologically are mixed-method, participatory approaches to program evaluation, and development of measures to assess organizational strengths of foster care agencies, leadership capacity of child welfare administrators and community involvement in public/private partnerships for child welfare services.
Key Publications
Evaluation Brief on the Status and Activities Related to Florida’s IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project: First 18 Months
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IV-E Waiver Demonstration Evaluation Semi-Annual Progress Report 3/SFY07-08
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Report to the Legislature:Evaluation of the Department of Children and Families Community-Based Care Initiative Fiscal Year 2006-2007
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IV-E Waiver Demonstration Evaluation Semi-Annual Progress Report 2 (SFY06-07)
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Semi-Annual Progress Report: IV-E Waiver Demonstration Evaluation
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