Femi Vance

Femi Vance is an applied youth development scholar with an emphasis on adolescence. She adopts a youth- and community-centered approach to research, evaluation, and training and has over 20 years of experience working in and on behalf of youth programs.

At AIR, Dr. Vance designs and conducts qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation studies related to youth development, professional training programs, and education reform initiatives. Dr. Vance’s most recent areas of study are youth-adult partnerships, expanding out-of-school opportunities for adolescents, adultification, and data-driven decision-making in districts. She employs participatory methods in her research because of her strong belief in the wisdom and agency of communities to make headway on long-standing issues such as high-quality educational opportunities. Her interests have led her to study how to leverage school-community partnerships to ensure youth have developmentally rich learning experiences. She has also led community advisory boards and embedded youth participatory action research in multi-year studies to enhance the relevance of her research to local communities. 

Dr. Vance strives to translate research into practice through training, technical assistance, and resource development. As a former content expert, trainer, and researcher for the Charles Stewart Mott-funded 50-State Afterschool Network she contributed to quality efforts across the nation by developing resources to advance afterschool system-building, creating and delivering trainings on quality, and bringing research to bear on pressing topics such as workforce development, quality standards, and youth outcomes. She has informed the design and delivery of continuous quality improvement efforts in Nevada, South Carolina, California, Utah, and Alaska. 

Dr. Vance has also contributed to the afterschool field by serving on the publication board for the Current Issues in Out-of-School Time book series and serving on the boards of nonprofits dedicated to strengthening the afterschool workforce.