Nancy Deutsch is the director of Youth-Nex, the UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development at the Curry School of Education. She is a Professor of Research, Statistics & Evaluation and Applied Developmental Science and is also affiliated with Curry's Youth & Social Innovation (YSI) Program. Deutsch's research examines the socio-ecological contexts of adolescent development, particularly issues related to identity. She has focused on the role of after-school programs and relationships with important adults, and is especially interested in the process of adolescent learning and development as it unfolds within local environments for better understanding about how to create settings that better support youth, especially those at risk due to economic or sociocultural factors. She received her BA from Vassar College and completed her Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. In 2017 Deutsch became editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research. She had been an Associate Editor of that publication. She also sits on the editorial boards for Applied Developmental Science and Qualitative Psychology. 

In addition to journal articles, she has published two books on youth in after-school programs, Pride in the Projects: Teens Building identifies in urban contexts (NYU Press, 2008) and After-School Programs and Youth Development (with Bart Hirsch & David DuBois, Cambridge University Press, 2011). Her works has been funded by agencies including the William T. Grant Foundation, the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Education.