About

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, skiing, reading, cooking, concerts, getting way too into holidays and spending time with my rascally dogs Ellie and Marshall.

Maggie Schultz Patel

Principal Evaluator

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

University of Chicago
Master’s of Social Work
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English
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 12 years. My past work has been focused on evaluating workforce development, adult education, mental health, criminal justice, homelessness, 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.

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.