Who We Are: Jocelyn Franke, MPAff

“Education should be built on policies that are evidence-based, student-focused, and equitable for all served.”

About Jocelyn Franke

(She/Her/Hers)

As a former teacher, Jocelyn has seen the challenges faced by students and faculty and understands the difficulties in accessing mental health resources and services. As the School and Community Health Lead at the Region 14 Comprehensive Center, Jocelyn works with our state clients to establish critical school-based mental health supports. Jocelyn identifies gaps in mental health services with the goal of providing wraparound well-being supports in schools and communities. She helps quickly find and synthesize the best available information in an accessible and useful way to best support student, educator, and family well-being.

 Jocelyn studied public policy at the University of Texas to be a part of the solution to the issues she encountered as a teacher. Adept at being immersed in the deep end of projects and wearing multiple hats, Jocelyn navigates complex legislative issues and works to implement high-quality programming. Research continually changes, and Jocelyn's analytical skills allow her to look at challenges from multiple perspectives to figure out the best solutions and the evidence that supports them.

Career Highlights

• Worked with the Texas Education Agency and their partners to release a school-based mental health toolkit and searchable database for statewide mental health resources.

• Co-developed and won the Region 14 Comprehensive Center proposal with Westat in 2019.

• Served as the Technical Assistance Lead on Westat’s work with the Texas Education Agency’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Community Partnerships grants and with the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) and Promise Neighborhood grant programs.

• Before shifting her focus to education policy, Jocelyn was an eighth-grade social studies teacher at a Title I school in Arizona.