Kezia Scales, PhD (she/her)
As the Vice President of Research & Evaluation, Kezia leads PHI’s strategy for building the evidence base on state and national policies and workforce interventions that improve direct care jobs, elevate this essential workforce, and strengthen care processes and outcomes. This role involves leading PHI’s program of workforce and policy research as well as overseeing the evaluation of PHI’s own field-leading interventions and initiatives.
Kezia has been studying and advocating for person-centered, high-quality long-term care with a focus on direct care workers for the majority of her career. She regularly disseminates research findings, policy recommendations, and best practices to diverse audiences, from policymakers to providers, researchers, advocates, and the general public. She currently serves on the national Family Caregiving Advisory Council convened by the Administration for Community Living; co-leads the Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD) Network; serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living (CEAL@UNC) and the Steering Committee for the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition; and represents PHI as a core partner and subject matter expert for the national Direct Care Workforce Strategies Center, among other roles. She has testified before Congress on the value of investing in the direct care workforce and has been named as a national Care Guild innovator.
Kezia holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Nottingham and an MS in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford (England) and a BA in Sociology from Queen’s University in Canada. Prior to joining PHI in 2017, she completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the School of Nursing at Duke University and at the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Kezia is based in Durham, North Carolina.
