About

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Philosophy

I am passionate about program evaluation as a tool of social justice. I believe that in a resource-limited world, we have a duty to understand whether our efforts are producing the intended results. When carried out with key stakeholders in mind, I believe that program evaluation has the power to improve people’s lives by ensuring that interventions are useful and effective. Similarly, I am utilization-focused, which means that I have no interest in pursuing a research agenda you can’t act upon. My goal is to generate the evidence you need along with actionable findings you can use to improve your program.

I live in Central Illinois and enjoy running, hiking, camping, reading, cooking, concerts, getting way too into holidays and spending time with my rascally dogs Ellie and Marshall.

Out on one of my favorite trails, where I go to clear my mind and dream up evaluation plans.

My primary concern is seeing past numbers to the real people behind the data. This means that I approach individuals of all backgrounds with cultural humility.

Education

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    University of Chicago

    Master’s of Social Work

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    University of Wisconsin-Madison

    Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English

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    University of Denver

    PhD, Research Methods and Statistics

Experience and Training

I am an experienced program evaluator who has been working in the field for over 15 years. My past work has been focused on evaluating programs in the areas of early childhood education, child welfare, workforce development, adult education, mental health, criminal justice, homelessness, anti-poverty, youth services, and foundation efforts.

Most importantly, my experience as program provider staff, foundation staff, and public agency staff means I have a rich and nuanced understanding of the complexity and common barriers in these environments. My over 10 years of teaching also means I am skilled at coaching and developing evaluation skills among my clients. My goal is to work myself out of a job with you!

Associates

While I run a lean shop, I’m fortunate to have a rich network of collaborators to call upon on whenever I could benefit from additional expertise.