We believe in the wisdom of family, community, and cultural voice, and the ability of all children, families, and service providers to thrive with the right supports
“To every child – I dream of a world where you can laugh, dance, sing, learn, live in peace and be happy.”
Our mission
Thriving Together’s mission is to partner with clients to design, implement, evaluate, improve, and scale innovative, equitable, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions and policies to promote the mental and well-being of young children, families, and service providers who experience trauma and adversity.
We help you and your organization make a positive difference, beginning wherever you are.
Meet our team
Thriving Together’s President, Jessica Dym Bartlett, and a team of consultants and advisors use cutting-edge methods of research, consultation, and training to ensure our clients are well-positioned to carry out their own mission regarding the mental and relational health of infants, young children, families, and service providers. We bring both professional and lived expertise in parenting, mental health, foster care, and as consumers of child and family social services.
Jessica Dym Bartlett
MSW, LICSW, PhD
President and Co-Founder, Thriving Together
Dr. Bartlett is a developmental psychologist, clinical social worker, researcher, and trainer with over 30 years of experience.
Dr. Bartlett’s experience includes program evaluation, training and technical assistance, preventive interventions, and clinical work with infants, young children, families, and service providers. She specializes in the promotion of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments to support families’ resilience to trauma and adversity, such as child abuse and neglect, parental mental health and substance use problems, and poverty. She has been awarded and led numerous federal, state, and tribal grants on child trauma, infant and early childhood mental health/early relational health, parent, caregiver, and provider mental health, child maltreatment prevention, parent and family engagement, Head Start/Early Head Start, early childhood education, and integrating behavioral health into obstetrics, newborn medicine, and pediatrics.
Dr. Bartlett's work has been featured in The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, The Huffington Post, The Economist, The Hechinger Report, MarketWatch, Al Jazeera, New York Magazine, National Geographic, USA Today, and other media. Contact Dr. Bartlett for media requests.
Prior to founding Thriving Together, she was a Senior Research Scholar at Child Trends, where she co-directed the Early Childhood Research and Child Welfare program areas. She also conducted training and research at Brazelton Touchpoints, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School where she was Director of Special Initiatives. She received a Masters degree and a Doctorate from Tufts University in applied child development and a Master of Social Work degree from Simmons College. Dr. Bartlett also has a broad applied background, having worked in child welfare, early intervention, and as a mental health consultant and child and family therapist for almost 15 years.
Ruth Bodian, MSW
Trainer/Consultant
Ms. Bodian has extensive experience leading and co-leading training on the impact of trauma, trauma-informed practices, and parenting. Her training incorporates information about historical, intergenerational, and racial trauma, and promotes Culturally Responsive, Anti Racist, and Equity (CARE) practices. Her personal experience as a foster and adoptive mother informs her perspective on promoting resilience and growth through trauma-responsive and healing-centered approaches.
Ruth is a Permanency Mediator for families in the child welfare system, Secretary for the Massachusetts Coalition of Permanency for Children (MCPC), Social Services Expert for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), and Consultant for the National Center for Safe and Supportive Schools (NCS3). Her prior work includes serving as Project Manager for the Massachusetts Child Trauma Project, a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) grant.
Alicia Lynch, MS, PhD
Quantitative Research Consultant
Dr. Lynch is the founder and CEO of Lynch Research Associates and has been contributing methodological and statistical expertise to grants and research programs for over 15 years. She thrives in meeting the challenges that come with every new research project and the process of bringing nascent research questions through the rigors of research and evaluation.
Alicia has expertise in the most up-to-date statistical modeling strategies and methodological techniques and is highly skilled in assisting organizations in the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data and the development of research programs that promote strategic change.
Alicia has helped clients publish in top-tier peer-reviewed academic journals, op-eds in national periodicals, and widely disseminated research briefs.
Anne Bentley Waddoups, MA, PhD
Qualitative Research Consultant
Dr. Waddoups brings a rich career background in developmental science, focusing particularly on early development in challenging circumstances, infant/parent mental health, program evaluation, and parenting. She has led programs, conducted research, and consulted globally on early child development interventions in the US, Central America, the Middle East, and Australia ranging in size, scope, and method from community-level qualitative focus groups to national, randomized controlled trial evaluations.
Most recently she served as the Director of the Center for Early Relationship Support, supporting healthy development through a range of interventions and services for parents/young children in the Boston area.
Jessica Greenstone Winestone, MS, PhD
Qualitative Research Consultant
Dr. Greenstone Winestone is a qualitative researcher specializing in evaluation. Using interviews, focus groups, text and observational data, she examines the complexity of individual and interactional experiences among and between program participants and providers, with the intention of informing practices and policies to optimize participant access, engagement, and impacts, and provider satisfaction and retention. Jessica has extensive experience leading qualitative inquiries in mixed methods and qualitative research and evaluation studies since 2007. She is Principal Research Consultant at Jessica Greenstone Consulting, and formerly directed and facilitated anti-bias and anti-bullying workshops for pre-K–12 educators.
"Jess is an invaluable partner. She blends knowledge and expertise from her clinical and research backgrounds, which make her the perfect partner for evaluation and technical assistance work. She is highly collaborative and promotive of others’ ideas and professional growth, which make her a partner you want to work with again and again."
— Senior Research Scientist