Dr. Amanda Beacom is a member of VNL’s evaluation team and a social scientist with expertise in network science. Her academic training includes a PhD in communication and a master’s degree in public policy, and prior to her graduate studies, she worked for nine years coordinating health education programs and publications. Before joining VNL, her network projects included evaluating the long-term growth and effectiveness of a community health coalition; mapping the diffusion of best practices across informal advice networks in the long term care sector; and testing methods for collecting the most reliable data about organizational networks.