EIC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Systems Design Engineer for the Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative
- Systems Design Specialist III
- Systems Design Specialist, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Alex is the Systems Design Engineer for the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative and designs, develops, and implements data solutions for researchers and project groups. These systems designed by Alex are instrumental in creating secure, fault tolerant, and effective solutions which accelerate and improve the project work of analysts, data scientist, and researchers. He holds a masters in Applied Statistics, as well as a dual B.A in Business Administration and Speech Communication, and is a lifelong learner of science, statistics, and all things data related. His expertise includes Python, cloud platforms, database management systems, and predictive modeling. He endeavors to create and advocate for the adoption of enterprise level cloud solutions within the greater researcher community.
Job Titles:
- Policy Associate, Research Translation Platform
Biography
Ayana Best earned her Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Her research primarily focuses on the effects of state-sanctioned violence on Black women's political participation and civic engagement. She previously held a research position at the USC Center for Feminist Research, working on projects addressing homelessness for women of color in California, and with the California Black redistricting Hub providing policy analysis that informs strategic priorities and planning related to redistricting in the Black community.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Data Accelerator Compliance
Bethany Shaw is a social science research professional who excels at collaboration, synthesizing multiple streams of information, and managing research processes. Bethany brings a solution-focused perspective to her role as Assistant Director of Data Accelerator Compliance, where she oversees the compliance and security needs of the data repository. She specializes in understanding researchers' data needs, developing IRB protocols, and project management throughout the research life cycle.
Previously, Bethany worked in health services research at Penn State specializing in qualitative methodology and research project management.
Bethany graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in Health Policy and Administration and a Masters of Health Administration.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Implementation Science
- Associate Director of Implementation, Research Translation Platform
Brittany Gay is the Associate Director of Implementation Science within the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative's Research Translation Platform. She supervises the implementation of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration model, as well as provides strategic technical assistance to policymakers and researchers seeking to better translate evidence and understand policymakers' evidence needs.
Brittany earned her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a concentration in Educational Contexts of Development. Her work focused on improving the success and wellbeing of children from low-income households and often involved collaborating with organizational and programmatic decision makers on issues such as juvenile workforce training, food insecurity, and early literacy engagement, consulting on feasible program goals and evaluation capacity development.
Job Titles:
- Doctoral Student
- Doctoral Student, Human Development and Family Studies
Casey is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State. Casey graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in Psychological Sciences and Human Development and Family Sciences. Prior to coming to Penn State, Casey worked at the UConn Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy in a lab researching sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth and adult health disparities. Casey's research interests include public policy, low-income families, and SGM parents.
Job Titles:
- Director, Social Investment Optimizer
- Director, Social Investment Optimizer / Associate Research Professor, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center / Scientific Advisor, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
- Senior Research Associate at Penn State 's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Dr. Jones is a Senior Research Associate at Penn State's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, and a Scientific Advisor for the Administrative Data Accelerator. Dr. Jones brings extensive experience in the areas of quantitative methodology, program evaluation, and cost-benefit analysis to his work with the Accelerator. Dr. Jones has diversified interests in the areas of prevention and intervention methodology, economic evaluation of effective programs for families and youth, social-emotional development in children, and health services research. Dr. Jones has directed benefit-cost evaluation initiatives for large federally funded projects, has coordinated policy & outreach events in Washington D.C. on social-emotional learning in children, authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has served as the Associate Training Director of the Prevention and Methodology Training Program (PAMT). Dr. Jones has taught statistics and data analysis for over a decade in the departments of Health and Family Studies and Health Policy and Administration, and acts as a statistical and economic analysis consultant for external organizations and universities. Dr. Jones is passionate about projects that have the potential for real impact, rather than engaging in research that is shelved and never leaves academia.
Biography
Donna provides administrative support for the RPC by organizing meetings, coordinating projects, and streamlining procedures to assure the group's efficiency. Her background as a teacher, workshop presenter, and published author has refined her research and writing skills and her ability to be an effective communicator. Donna's passions include dancing, hiking, singing, playing the harp, history, and costuming which her kids assure her is cool if its called Cosplay.
Job Titles:
- Chief Innovation Officer, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
- Chief Innovation Officer, Evidence to Impact Collaborative
- Pediatrician
Biography
Dr Laura Jana is a pediatrician, social entrepreneur and award-winning author now on faculty at Penn State's Prevention Research Center, having previously served as Director of Innovation at the University of Nebraska College of Public Health. She has a degree in Cellular Molecular Biology (University of Michigan) and a medical degree (Case Western Reserve University). Early in her career, Dr Jana collaborated with Dr Benjamin Spock and co-founded one of the first online health/parenting websites. In addition to pediatric practice, she founded her own consulting company, was 10-year owner/operator of a private educational childcare center, received a 40 Under 40 Business Award, and became internationally recognized as a trusted consultant for parents, news media, academic and government organizations, non-profits and corporations alike. Dr Jana is currently a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, head of Mattel's medical advisory council, consultant to Primrose Schools - a $1B US-based system of educational childcare centers, member of Ready Nation/Council for a Strong America's Speakers Bureau, and blogger for US News & World Report. As author of 31 books, her latest, The Toddler Brain: Nurture the Skills Today That Will Shape Your Child's Tomorrow, focuses on the strategic cultivation of 21st Century skills, the focus of her latest startup and more than 120 talks/keynotes (including 2 TED talks) addressing a wide range of cross-sector audiences - from the World Forum on Early Childhood, Delhi Public Schools, and Early Childhood Australia to the US Chamber of Commerce, the World Bank, and the British Parliament.
Dr. Jonathan Wright focuses on transforming raw data, often containing sensitive information, into useable extracts for research analysis. He collaborates with a diverse group of stakeholders throughout the transformation process of turning datasets into research products that can be used by researchers, policymakers, and administrators for analysis and planning.
Jonathan graduated from the University of Oregon with a Ph.D. in Linguistics, using empirical studies to explore language processing and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Penn State University working on behavioral and neuroscience studies investigating language processing across the lifespan. Jonathan's interests involve the processing of qualitative and quantitative research data and the application of NLP and machine learning to the investigation of a variety of research questions and needs.
Job Titles:
- Director, Research Translation Platform
- Director, Research Translation Platform / Associate Professor, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Dr. Taylor Scott is situated at the intersection of research and policy by both leading research translation strategies and evaluating their impact. She is a community-based program evaluator by training, and has worked closely with decision makers to use research evidence in the real world for over a decade. As Director of Research Translation in the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative at Penn State University, she consults on various strategies for bridging research and policy and leads scholarly research that sheds light on the best practices for research translation, science communication, and facilitating productive interactions between researchers and policymakers. As a Co-director of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, she directs activities that broker connections between researchers and legislative offices.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Research Professor
- Lead Healthcare Data Analyst for the Administrative Data
Dr. Xueyi (Steven) Xing is the lead healthcare data analyst for the Administrative Data Accelerator. His academic focus include quantitative research methodology, GIS application, health data management, and Bayesian spatio-temporal analysis. Xueyi is interested in identifying the effects that health policies have on specific populations by utilizing health claim data. Xueyi received his Masters of Science in Public Health in Biostatistics and Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of South Carolina.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Director of Research & Evaluation, Research Translation Platform
Elizabeth C. Long is a researcher with training in the etiology and prevention of substance use disorders, and more recently, research translation and dissemination. As Director of Research and Evaluation with the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, Dr. Long's work focuses on investigating strategies for bridging the gap between research and policy using models from the EIC's Research Translation Platform. This includes leading the evaluation of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration model and testing strategies for increasing state and federal policymakers' electronic engagement with research through the SCOPE model.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Policy Operations, Research Translation Platform
Biography
Emily Warthman earned her J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She also earned master's degrees in Human Resources Management (Franklin University) and Public Health (Walden University). In previous legal and HR roles, Emily helped create positive work environments in public and nonprofit sectors, including in positions at a large municipality, a leading pediatric hospital, and a state supreme court. She has also worked closely with researchers and public officials on a variety of policy and personnel matters. Her current professional interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, optimizing operations, personnel management, equity in policymaking, and identifying and implementing best practices to support researcher and policymaker interactions. Emily oversees a variety of RPC implementation activities, in addition to fostering trusted relationships between the research and policy communities.
Emma is a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She received her degree in Child Development and Psychology from Central Michigan University. At CMU, she was a member of Family Health Lab where she collaborated on interventions targeting problematic media use in adolescents. She was also a Summer 2021 Research Fellow for CMU's Emerging Leaders in Health Disparities program where she worked to help improve accessibility of mental health interventions in rural Michigan. Emma's research interests involve exploring potential disconnects between intervention research and those it intends to serve; she aspires to work to help fill in gaps between published evidence-based interventions and the ability of practitioners and policymakers to successfully implement them.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Research Professor
Biography
Ezra Goldstein is an Assistant Research Professor who focuses on how public and social institutions affect the well-being of vulnerable children and their long-term outcomes. His work examines how family structure affects childhood development and how formal institutions that interact with vulnerable children, such as the child welfare system, affect long-term outcomes such as mental health, criminal justice system involvement, and economic well-being. As an applied microeconomist, Dr. Goldstein's research employs comprehensive administrative datasets and quasi-experimental techniques to estimate causal effects relevant to cross-disciplinary scholars and policymakers. Dr. Goldstein completed his Ph.D. in Economics from Florida State University in the spring of 2022 and joined the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative and the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State that summer.
Gillian supports the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative through management of multiple cross-collaborative projects. She works with the project management team to track progress, streamline communication, and improve processes across all projects. Gillian earned her B.S. in Biobehavioral Health at Penn State. During her studies, she held multiple undergraduate research assistant positions in the Prevention Research Center.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Research Professor
Hyun Woo is an Assistant Research Professor and the lead child welfare data analyst for the Administrative Data Accelerator. He has expertise in working with high-volume longitudinal and multilevel data analysis-with particular interest in causal inference with observational data. He is also passionate about employing innovative data science methods to gain new insights in social science research.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Research Associate, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Biography
Jessica Pugel earned her M.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University. Throughout undergraduate and graduate training, she studied how structural factors of our immediate communities affect individuals, groups, and intergroup relations. These findings repeatedly pointed to the need to change the system to effectively improve relations, which contributed to her interest in policy. Her undergraduate honors thesis and graduate thesis both emphasized the importance of intergroup contact (political parties and ethnic groups, respectively). She was able to study yet another type of intergroup contact when she joined the RPC as an intern in January 2020: contact between researchers and policymakers. Now as a research associate, Jessica's role includes (1) supporting analytic capacity, (2) enhancing researcher engagement, and (3) maintaining partnerships with related organizations.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research Operations
- Director of Research Operations, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Jessica Wolfe-Connor is a program management professional who excels at moving projects and programs forward in the health and behavioral sciences. Jessica brings a deep knowledge of research operations and program development to her role as program manager with the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, where she leads the research program management strategy. She specializes in assessing key factors needed for building consensus to successfully develop and sustain research projects and programs.
Previously, Jessica has worked in state government systems, launched a domestic violence offender intervention program in Schuylkill County, and supported clinician-researchers in the proposal development process at the Penn State College of Medicine.
Jessica graduated from King's College with a B.A. in Political Science and was later awarded an Eagleton Fellowship at Rutgers University, where she earned a master's degree in Public Affairs and Politics.
Education
M.A., Rutgers University
B.A., King's College
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant, Research Translation Platform
Biography
Laura's background in crisis management and legal services drew her to the RPC and their mission. She has assisted in practice areas of employment, Title IX, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. She has extensive experience with complex scheduling and building relationships through case management, collaboration, and community outreach. She utilizes this experience to support the implementation and administration of the RPC. Laura is currently pursuing a B.S. in Pre-Law and Justice and Equity studies at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and she intends to gain her J.D. specializing in constitutional law, as well as women, family, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Job Titles:
- Director of Administration and Compliance
- Director of Administration and Compliance, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Mary works closely with the leadership team of the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative to support the administrative needs of the unit, including the Administrative Data Accelerator and the Research-to-Policy Collaboration. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Criminal Justice with a Concentration in Family, Children, and Youth from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Scientist
- Director, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC ) Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies / School of Public Policy
Dr. Crowley is a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development and well-being. This work sits at the intersection of social policy, prevention science and public finance. His program of research is motivated by a desire to increase the use of cost-effective, evidence-based preventive strategies to improve the lives of children and families. To accomplish this, his work aims to (1) strengthen methods for benefit-cost analyses of preventive interventions, (2) optimize prevention strategies' impact and (3) develop best practices for how to translate these investments into evidence-based policy. In this manner, he seeks to not only understand the costs and benefits of prevention, but aim to develop better interventions and encourage them to be disseminated widely. Dr. Crowley is accepting graduate students and postdoctoral trainees for the upcoming academic year.
Job Titles:
- Director of Social Innovation at the Prevention Research Center
- Director, Design4Impact Incubator
Meg Small is the Director of Social Innovation at the Prevention Research Center and serves as the Director of the Health and Human Development Design for Impact Lab. As a Penn State alumna, Meg received her BS in health and human development (HHD) and went on to receive her Ph.D. in public and community health from the University of Maryland. Meg has worked in prevention research for 20 years, and initially became interested in the field as a graduate student who wished to help with the eradication of HIV.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director of the Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative
- Associate Director, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Michael Donovan is the Associate Director of the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative leading strategic engagement and outreach efforts with the policy, philanthropic, and business communities. He facilitates collaborative projects between the research community and external partners, including federal, state, and local government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and think tanks. In recent years, he has contributed to collaborative research efforts related to health equity, substance use and addiction, child maltreatment, rural health, juvenile justice, integrated data systems and data policy, research process innovation and improvement, the societal effects of COVID-19, and science communication and translation. His efforts aim to build and maintain strategic partnerships that both produce scientific value and contribute to the creation of policy-relevant, practical insights. He manages various projects and initiatives and brings external perspectives to maximize scientific impact. His interests encompass the intersection of scientific inquiry and public policy in areas of administration, business, communication, and technology. He brings over a decade of experience in government to this role, including in his previous position as Special Assistant to the President in the Obama White House.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager
- Project Manager, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Rachel provides support for the RPC by scheduling meetings with congressional offices, supporting researcher network enrollment and communication, and coordinating Rapid Response events and collaborations. She assists in the RPC's evaluation by ensuring that implementation efforts with researchers and congressional offices are effectively documented and organized for reporting purposes. Rachel is also responsible for managing and overseeing the RPC's administrative needs and uses her role to develop and streamline procedures to ensure the group's efficiency and organization. Her background has primarily consisted of roles supporting community psychology research. While earning her B.A. in Psychology, Rachel was involved in the Community Research and Evaluation Team and participated in the Research Scholars program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Sarah is an experienced public health professional with a background in health education as well as program planning and administration. Sarah brings a forward-thinking and upstream focus to her role as Research Project Manager with the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative, where she oversees and manages projects involving both internal and external stakeholders.
Previously, Sarah has worked at Penn State as part of the University's COVID response effort and served in county government as a worksite wellness program coordinator. Sarah has a B.S. in Biology from Shippensburg University and an MPH in Community Health Education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Sarah has interests in health education, health communication, college student health and well being, infectious and chronic disease prevention, and health disparities.
Biography
Stephanie provides administrative support to the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative by organizing meetings, managing records, and coordinating various projects. Her background in veterinary medicine and inventory management has given her strong communication skills and a keen eye for detail. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys reading, knitting, and hiking.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager, Research Translation Platform
Victoria Stamadianou earned her M.A. in Development Studies in Poverty, Conflict, and Reconstruction from the University of Manchester Institute for Development and Policy Management. She worked with the London-based International Alert and partners to support conflict resolution in the Middle East and Asia. In her previous role as Senior Research Specialist with the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center she supported the evaluation of projects that aimed to improve the delivery of mental health and substance use treatment services. She has extensive experience in project design, project management, evaluation, and partnership building. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Qualitative, Quantitative, and Psychometric Methods at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
Yanping is an experienced professional with expertise in problem-solving, planning, monitoring, resource management, quality, risk management, and leadership development. She is skilled at managing important and time-sensitive projects, developing innovative solutions to critical problems, balancing stakeholder expectations with conflicting interests, and working collaboratively with team members to establish efficient systems of operation.
Yanping was a senior analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman before joining Penn State, where she handled planning, organizing, and managing functions related to business operations. Yanping obtained her master's degree in Project Management at Northeastern University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Research Professor at the Administrative Data
- Assistant Research Professor, Evidence - to - Impact Collaborative ( EIC )
Dr. Hur is an Assistant Research Professor at the Administrative Data Accelerator. She received her PhD in Applied economics from the University of Minnesota with expertise in applied microeconomics and development economics. Dr. Hur's research interest pertains to the impact of policy intervention on the human capital accumulation and labor market outcome. Her research involves identifying the mechanism of influence from policy intervention on the household behavior such as investment to human capital and participation to labor market combining a rigorous applied microeconomics methodology.