Our Team
Our team is experienced in qualitative and quantitative evaluation and research design/methods and brings content knowledge in a wide variety of areas including education, diversity and cultural competency, psychology, human/social services, assessment, statistics, and IT.
We have chosen this line of work because we want to help improve our communities. We believe we can do that through creative, thoughtful, and useful evaluation and research. We are simultaneously idealistic, theoretical, and pragmatic – we do not believe that there is one single way to conduct an evaluation. As a result, we are agile evaluators and situational practitioners who design and adapt evaluation and research plans and program theories to meet client, project, and emergent needs.
We have chosen this line of work because we want to help improve our communities. We believe we can do that through creative, thoughtful, and useful evaluation and research. We are simultaneously idealistic, theoretical, and pragmatic – we do not believe that there is one single way to conduct an evaluation. As a result, we are agile evaluators and situational practitioners who design and adapt evaluation and research plans and program theories to meet client, project, and emergent needs.
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Ava Yang-Lewis, Ph.D.
Founder Ava is the team lead, overseeing all aspects of operations and ensuring that project quality is an integral part of the process. She brings over 10 years of experience in evaluation and in both qualitative and quantitative research and has advanced training in research methods with diverse and racial ethnic groups. She has content knowledge and hands-on experience in education, career/work development, diversity initiatives & cultural competence, mental health and psychology. In addition to Ava's work as a researcher and evaluator, she has previously held roles as a visiting assistant professor, instructor, curriculum designer, and as a mental health and career counselor. She has published research in education, psychology, cultural competence, and school interventions. Ava is bilingual in English and in Hmong. |
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Mark Lewis, Ph.D.
Co-Founder Mark brings quantitative research design, data, and analytics expertise to the team. He has worked on research funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Institute of Education Sciences and has developed key performance metrics for large public institutions. He also brings experience in education, health care, psychology, assessment, learning technology, data management, and IT domains. Mark has published peer-reviewed research in psychology and educational neuroscience including recent work in the prestigious journal Psychological Science. He speaks English and knows enough Spanish to get by. |
Our Strategic Partners
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Mireya Smith, M.A.
Consultant Mireya brings a background in statistics, measurement, and counseling to the team. She has worked extensively in higher education institutions with responsibilities in student affairs and in evaluation-based, data-driven program development. In addition to its application, Mireya designs, peer-reviews, and teaches undergraduate math/statistics courses. Mireya has also held roles as a career counselor and has also served as a cultural broker and interpreter for the Saint Paul School District. Mireya is bilingual in English and in Spanish. Danielle Dupuis, Ph.D.
Consultant Danielle brings a background in educational measurement. She is the Assistant Director for Research and Assessment Services at the Center for Applied Research & Educational Improvement, University of Minnesota. Danielle is the lead or co-author on over 30 peer reviewed publications, including articles in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Educational and Psychological Measurement, the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, and Educational Research and Evaluation. She has previously worked as a Research Associate/Assistant on both Institute of Education Sciences and National Science Foundation funded projects, and as a Research Associate in test development for Assessment Product Solutions, NCS Pearson. Danielle is bilingual in English and in French. |