Rate My Professor Deborah Harburger

Deborah Harburger, MSW, is the Director of Policy and Financing at the Innovations Institute and an Assistant Extension Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut. She brings more than two decades of hands-on experience working within and alongside public child- and family-serving agencies. Prior to her current roles, Harburger served as Director of the Ruth Young Center for Maryland, where she developed expertise in policy and service delivery for vulnerable populations. As a trained Title IV-E worker, she has served as project director and principal investigator on multiple federal- and state-funded contracts and grants. Additionally, Harburger has taught Children and Social Services Policy to graduate social work students, preparing the next generation of practitioners in child welfare and family services.

Harburger holds a BA in psychology, summa cum laude, from The Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, and an MSW with a concentration in management and community organization and specialization in families and children from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Her academic interests and research specializations focus on child welfare and homelessness, child welfare and behavioral health services, interagency structures and service arrays, and Medicaid financing for children’s behavioral health services. She provides technical assistance to states and communities on sustainable financing, including Medicaid and Title IV-E, child welfare systems and services, youth homelessness, strategic planning, and implementation of interagency initiatives. Among her contributions, Harburger has developed Medicaid State Plan Amendments, a Title IV-E Waiver, FFPSA Prevention Plans, strategic plans, fund maps, fiscal analyses, white papers, and other technical documents that support improved outcomes for children and families in public systems.