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Julia Watson is an economist and health systems specialist with 25 years of experience working on both developed and developing country health systems. She has extensive experience managing people and programs and collaborating with a wide range of partners. Her work focuses on improving health financing systems and strengthening the stewardship role of governments in mixed health systems.

Jennifer S. Riggs, Ph.D., brings her extensive research, policy, and nursing experience to improve care for all patients, especially older adults. Her clinical area of expertise is Medicare-certified home health and home and community-based care for diverse adults and older adults with multiple co-occurring chronic conditions and complex care coordination needs.

Teresa Mota, BSN, RN is an Associate/Nurse Researcher and a sought-after clinical researcher on federal and state projects emphasizing aging, long-term care, and improving the care experience. Mota has an extensive clinical and health services research background in geriatric nursing, and she specializes in post-acute care, quality improvement (QI) and supporting community-based providers and stakeholders to assist them in the identification of best-practices, develop resources and tools, communications, and implementation of QI initiatives. Mota also participates in data collection, measurement, analysis, and reporting related to these programs.

Nadiia Zaritska is a Ph.D. sociologist with 13 years of extensive experience in programme management, research, monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL), and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) analysis. With a steadfast commitment to promoting gender equality, social inclusion, and human rights, Zaritska has focused her efforts on driving reforms, democratization, and addressing the social repercussions of conflict and war. Her professional journey has led her to engage closely with national and local governmental bodies in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

Matthew Sweeney leads business development and account management for Abt’s portfolio of work at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). With more than 20 years of healthcare experience partnering with federal agencies, small businesses, and the private sector, Sweeney has led large research and operational projects focused on various dimensions of alternative payment models, including:  implementing and validating quality measures, program support for hospital pay-for-performance programs, and advising clients on the design and refinement of their value-based purchasing arrangements.

Hanna Kovaleva is a program manager with 15 years of experience managing  humanitarian aid and development programs in Ukraine, with a recent focus on the eastern part of the country ravaged by the war with Russia. She has worked with international organizations, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the United Nations, as well as social enterprises. Kovaleva’s work with vulnerable populations has centred around gender equality, non-discrimination, conflict sensitivity, and social inclusion. She has extensive experience with monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning approaches; program management; and communication strategies in public health, mental health, and community stabilisation.

Dr. Matthew Finster is a principal researcher with 15 years of experience working in education and educational policy research. His expertise lies in providing technical assistance on educational research and program implementation, which often focuses on improving educator effectiveness and student outcomes. He has significant experience working with federal education grantees, state education agencies, local education agencies, and schools on building their capacity to implement their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans. He is also the author of numerous articles and technical reports centered around education and human capital management that have appeared in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Journal of Education Human Resources, and other notable publications.

Dr. Rebecca McGill-Wilkinson is an education researcher with two decades of experience designing and implementing evaluation and research projects. She has extensive expertise in a broad range of impact and implementation evaluation approaches, including quasi-experimental designs, randomized control trials, survey design and analysis methods, systematic evidence reviews, and measure development. Her work includes evaluations of federal education policies, including the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). With a background in developmental psychology, she has contributed to systematic evidence reviews for both the Administration of Children and Families and the U.S. Department of Education. McGill-Wilkinson is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a range of topics, including the role of racial identity and peer relationships in socio-emotional outcomes and academic achievement for adolescents. She has delivered over 40 conference presentations and invited talks in academic and practice settings and is a prolific blog author.

Liam Ristow is a mixed methods evaluator with 20+ years of evaluation experience in the areas of K-12 and postsecondary education, services for disconnected youth, and community-level change initiatives addressing health and homelessness. He has extensive experience designing and conducting complex multi-year implementation and outcome evaluations for clients at the federal, state and local levels. Ristow brings particular expertise in design of data collection protocols, qualitative data collection and analysis, and development of relevant, actionable evaluation reports.