Our Team


Osa Maiyanne Adaján, Ph.D.

President

“I am passionate about helping others become better at what they do. There are so many amazing organizations creating tangible change in our world.  Providing the highest-quality thought partnership with unmatched excellence in service to clients and partners is my first priority.”

—Osa Maiyanne Adaján, Ph.D.

Dr. Osa Maiyanne Adaján is the Co-Founder and President of Creative Research Solutions.  Dr. Adaján brings a unique approach to her work in research and evaluation, including a personal touch, a bit of humor, and genuine concern for the well-being of her team and CRS’ clients and partners.  As a local, national and international award-winning evaluator, facilitator, and thought leader, she strategizes with organizations to improve their programmatic design, grantmaking strategy, program implementation, strategies for systems-level change, and community partnerships.  Her results-driven approach measures and documents her clients’ impact, maximizes client resources, and enables them to tap into new markets.  Dr. Adaján is a skilled and sensitive facilitator and trainer, certified in Results-Based Accountability (RBA).  She has used the RBA framework to help nonprofits, educational institutions, government agencies, foundations, and the communities that they serve co-create collaborative, shared evaluation outcomes.  

Dr. Adaján is a trusted advisor to several national and international initiatives in the domains of education, health, human rights, philanthropy, community engagement, and political advocacy.  Her insights and strategic oversight have enabled local, national and international organizations to refine and scale their programs, tackle roadblocks and barriers, and authentically engage key partners in lasting change.  While many of the initiatives that she supports are confidential, a few include serving as an advisor to the White House, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Krupp Family Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Duke Endowment, ProGeorgia, and Reboot Representation, a regrantor for a coalition of global technology companies.  

She has also served as an advisor and collaborator for a rigorous strategy review of a multi-year, global grantmaking portfolio in the area of human rights.  Dr. Adaján previously served as the Project Lead on an international STEAM curriculum development project for middle school girls of color and as the Lead Evaluator on the United Nations Foundation’s Retrospective Impact Evaluation of their Girl Up Campaign. She evaluated the five-year outcomes of this international campaign that raised $7.2 million for UN programs with more than 2,000 global partners and affiliates in health, education, and civic engagement. These programs help girls in developing countries have the opportunity to see a doctor, attend school, and stay protected from violence.

Dr. Adaján is trained in a variety of research methods and is also a skilled and sensitive facilitator.  As a facilitator and evaluator for the United Way of Greater Atlanta (UWGA), Dr. Adaján co-facilitated a series of ongoing training workshops with hundreds of UWGA grantees and prospective partners to develop a new, shared framework for improving child well-being in the Greater Atlanta area. She then worked with UWGA staff, grantees, and community members to create shared action plans and evaluation frameworks for addressing racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities at the child, family, and community levels in the state of Georgia for each of the 14 strategies of the Child Well-Being Index.  Her consultancy also provided key strategy and program development insights that helped Spelman College secure a 5-year, $2.7-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to test a metacognitive curriculum intervention, for which she served as Lead Evaluator.  This project was considered for the highly-rigorous national registry in education, What Works Clearinghouse.  In addition, Dr. Adaján worked with the DeKalb County Office of Youth Services to assess the impact of six youth programs, each with a health or education focus.

Dr. Adaján has been fortunate to receive several prestigious national and international fellowships and has served as Arts of Citizenship Fellow; the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) Fellow; National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellow; and U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Fellow (Brazil).  Dr. Adaján has won national and international awards for her work, including a National Association for Women-Owned Businesses Shining Star Award.  She also received an international honor, the Rising Star Award from the International Journal of Ethnic College Health for her work with the Life Balance and Wellness Institute in addressing health disparities among youth and college students of color.  She previously served on the Board of Directors for the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce (GA).She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in American Studies and her Bachelor’s Degree from UC Berkeley (Interdisciplinary Studies and English), summa cum laude.  She served as Program Co-Chair for the American Evaluation Association’s Nonprofits and Foundations Topical Interest Group (AEA NPFTIG), and has also held visiting professor and visiting scholar appointments at several colleges and universities.  An invited radio and television guest and featured writer at news and media outlets, Dr. Adaján is the author of several print and media publications in the fields of educational and community research, evaluation, and self-care.  Her previously published work may be found under the name “Dr. Shanesha Brooks-Tatum”.

Ajíšafé Adaján, Ph.D. 

Executive Vice President

“My vision is to help individuals, institutions, and communities reach their highest potential.  It is my honor to serve communities through rigorous research and evaluation that is culturally responsive, equitable, and adaptable.”

—Ajíšafé Adaján, Ph.D.

As Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Creative Research Solutions, Dr. Ajíšafé Adaján is dedicated to helping individuals, institutions, and communities improve their performance through high-quality research and deliverables.  Dr. Adajan’s leadership has helped the firm become one of the most trusted in the evaluation sector.  Dr. Adaján has led CRS in over 13 years of award-winning, impactful work.  He and his team help organizations nationally and globally measure and document their outcomes and community impact as they work to address structural inequities.  The work of Dr. Adaján and his staff has positively impacted communities in the United States, South Africa, India, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, and several other countries.

For the past 5 years, he has collaborated with Griffin and Strong, P.C., to provide leadership and strategic oversight for a team of national researchers specializing in completing disparity studies at the city, county, and state levels.  Disparity studies are some of the most rigorous research projects as the research design and analyses must withstand legal scrutiny.  In addition, Dr. Adaján exhibits a highly specialized skill in creating dashboards, predictive models, and other data science tools to ensure the success of projects and initiatives.  He uses data- and research-informed approaches to help organizations predict outcomes.  With his unique combination of academic preparation, research training, infotech integration, and communication skills, Dr. Adaján and the CRS team are able to provide outstanding value to your organization.

Dr. Adaján earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan and currently resides in Atlanta metro area.  As a social psychologist, Dr. Adaján is skilled in finding ways to measure seemingly “unmeasurable” outcomes.  For example, his co-authored article in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, “Teachers and Learners: Roles Adopted in Interracial Discussions,” examined the extent to which White and Black discussion participants felt that they were in “teacher” and “learner” roles while talking about race.  Likewise, Dr. Adaján’s previous work, Directed Attention and Stereotype Threat in Interracial Interactions examined White participants’ experience of stereotype threat in the context of talking about race.  Each of these projects demonstrated Dr. Adaján’s ability to effectively measure social outcomes even when dealing with challenging issues or situations.

In addition to his academic experience, he has also developed strong facilitation skills through the CommonGround program at the University of Michigan.  Facilitation differs from other communication skills in that it focuses on helping others bring forward their ideas to the benefit of the group, especially where either situational factors or individual differences in communication style might otherwise interfere with communication.  When applied to interviews and focus groups, Dr. Adaján’s ability to thoughtfully engage with participants will greatly enhance the depth and quality of the data collected.

Dr. Adaján has previously served as President of the Atlanta-Area Evaluation Association.  Dr. Adaján’s previously published work may be found under the name “Dr. Travis Tatum”.

Molly Matthews-Ewald, Ph.D., MS

Director of Research and Evaluation

Molly Matthews-Ewald, Ph.D., M.S., has over 12 years of experience in research and evaluation across an array of content areas. She is experienced in identifying and working with community stakeholders and leaders to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions and programs. She has experience in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods designs and analyses. Dr. Matthews-Ewald has expertise in developing and using a variety of data collection methodologies, including but not limited to, secondary data (e.g., administrative data, large federal datasets), performance measures/key performance indicators, surveys, observation tools, interviews, and focus groups. She has previously served as Project Director, Principal Investigator, Task Lead, Advisor, and Quality Assurance Officer across many projects for several Federal agencies (e.g., US Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation; Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services). Her collective professional experience has resulted in working with diverse populations. Dr. Matthews-Ewald’s content areas of expertise include primary, secondary, and tertiary obesity prevention; disordered eating; and school climate — much of which has focused on underserved populations. She has led or coauthored 20 peer-reviewed publications, 3 book chapters, over 35 presentations, several technical reports, and has extensive experience translating and presenting findings to a variety of technical and lay audiences.

Examples of her prior experience include working as part of the evaluation team to evaluate public health efforts to reduce obesity, increase physical activity, and improve nutrition through social marketing campaigns and policy initiatives in schools, hospitals, and communities throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley region in West Virginia as part of the CDC-funded Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW). While a Research Associate at the University of Houston, she supported the implementation and evaluation of a family-based intervention (BOUNCE – Behavioral Opportunities Uniting Nutrition Counseling and Exercise) to reduce obesity-related conditions among underserved communities through the empowering Hispanic and African American youth (and their families) to establish healthy lifestyles (focused on nutritious eating, physical activity, and positive body image). Most recently, she served as the Performance Measures and Monitoring Task Lead of a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project evaluating the Zika Health Care Services Program (HCSP) which supports the prevention activities and treatment services for women, men, and children who were impacted or may be potentially impacted by the Zika virus. In this role, she updated and reported the performance measures quarterly and also provided technical assistance to grantees to report quarterly progress in implementing Zika-related activities. At her prior organization, she also oversaw the development of the final mixed-methods evaluation plan, development and revisions to the final data collection tools and protocols, including pilot testing, for the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)/Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s (MCHB) Autism CARES Initiative. At her prior organization, she served as Project Director for the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) study which determined whether it was feasible for FNS to develop a nutrition paraprofessional training program for Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation (FDPIR) staff. This project included a series of telephone interviews with Indian Tribal Organization (ITO) directors, ITO staff, and stakeholders. Findings from this study were used to inform the development of a pilot training program.

Dr. Matthews-Ewald holds a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, concentration in Social and Behavioral Health, from West Virginia University. She earned her Master of Science in Exercise and Health Studies, concentration in Health Promotion, from Miami University. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Leadership minor, from Christopher Newport University.

Nivedita Ranade, Ph.D.

Director of Business Development and Client Relations

Nivedita Ranade, Ph.D., has more than 9 years of professional experience in program evaluation, research design and measurement, data collection and analysis, dissemination, grant writing, and project management. She is skilled in providing technical assistance on evaluation, performance measurement, and continuous quality improvement. Her areas of program and policy expertise include child and family development in cultural contexts, early childhood and K-12 education, afterschool programs, and family risk and adversity—with an emphasis on evaluating home visiting programs.

As an Extension Services Consultant for National Center for Women and Informational Technology (NCWIT), Nivedita has served as a change leader for broadening minority populations’ (e.g., women, students with disabilities) participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) STEM fields. She has also worked as a child development specialist in Mumbai, India where she provided clinical support and designed prevention and intervention program to promote mental health and child and family welfare.

Nivedita earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from University of Connecticut. She also holds a certificate in Culture, Health, and Human Development from the University of Connecticut where she studied the cultural construction of children’s environments of daily life, and how these promote various aspects of development. She received her Masters of Science in Human Development from the University of Mumbai, India, and her undergraduate Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology from University of Mumbai, India.

Breanna Alston, MA

Project Manager and Systems Strategist

Breanna Alston is a Project Manager and Systems Strategist at Creative Research Solutions. In her role, Breanna supports the coordination and execution of projects to ensure fruitful collaborations with our partners. With an eye toward creating efficiencies in the way we operate, a major component of her work at CRS focuses on the continuous improvement of the tools and systems used to conduct complex project and budget management.

Before CRS, Breanna worked as a technology strategist to develop custom technology solutions (web-based professional development, e-learning, and data collection & reporting systems) designed to improve the social, emotional, and behavioral health of children and their families. Having led and co-led several multi-year projects, Breanna enjoys the dynamism of project management, but values beyond anything, the impact that is ultimately had on communities and institutions when effective solutions are implemented. In joining CRS, Breanna is able to continue in the same spirit by working to facilitate the evaluation of organizations and the work they do to improve the lives of others.

With experience spanning community, education, business, technology, and academic/research settings, Breanna brings a unique combination of experience but is most passionate about human/personal development, racial and gender equity, economic justice, and cross-cultural collaboration. Breanna has a Master’s in Urban Affairs & Public Policy from Loyola University Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts in both Spanish and Sociology from the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Jeremiah-Alec R. Piña, Ph.D.

Director of Research and Evaluation Design

Jeremiah Piña, Ph.D., is Director of Research and Evaluation Design at Creative Research Solutions. For more than a decade, his work has focused on advancing opportunities for historically underrepresented and marginalized young people to engage with, and find success in, STEM learning. His experience with STEM education crosscuts areas of curriculum development, teacher professional development, and outcome assessment. He is a strong proponent of utilizing methods of teaching, learning, and assessment that leverage aspects of divergent thinking, creative problem-solving, narrative learning (especially culturally-based narratives), and the use of imagination.

Dr. Piña earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia. His initial academic areas of study focused on the assessment of creative thinking skills and the psychosocial development of creative performance during adolescence. His dissertation centered on creating new methods of assessment that could capture the role of adolescent identity transitions and their consequences on the creative performances of self-identified “nerdy” or “geeky” middle schoolers who faced social marginalization and bullying.

His passion for working with underrepresented and marginalized students in STEM education was ignited when he began to engage with upper elementary and middle school students from disadvantaged backgrounds during his research assistantship with the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE) and, later, as an assistant for the Project for University-School Partnership for Achievement, Rigor, and Creativity (Project U-SPARC). This has continued in his more recent work with the Transforming Engineering Education for Middle Schools (TEEMS) project, wherein the team sought to create a novel framework for narrative-based instruction as a means of scaffolding the learning of key engineering design concepts for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

As an ongoing aspect of his work, Dr. Piña has been an advocate for integrating assessments into the classroom learning environment in such a way that they can both provide useful information for educators and enhance the engagement of learners. To this end, he has worked to develop multiple assessment tools for use in STEM classrooms, most especially at the upper elementary and early middle school levels. These measures were designed to capture difficult-to-assess indicators of student learning outcomes such as cognitive engagement, concept-based problem-solving, reflection, and the development of creative thinking skills. Assessments Dr. Piña has developed include (1) a scenario-centered performance-based assessment of engineering design process knowledge, (2) a short form of the engineering identity and self-efficacy assessment, (3) a self-report assessment of adolescent geek identity transitions in early middle school, and (4) the baseline measure of the achievement, rigor, and creativity self-efficiency questionnaire.

Dr. Piña continues to pursue his academic passion for working with topics in creativity development, as well. His most recent publications include four chapters for the Encyclopedia of Creativity covering topics as diverse as eccentricity, paracosms (persistent worlds of fantasy play), geek identity development, and a historical discussion of the creativity of games and gaming.

He has also more recently served as a freelance assessment and evaluation consultant for educational programs designed for implementation in K-12 educational settings, as well as programs designed for informal learning settings. In his role as an active, responsive collaborator and thought partner, Dr. Piña works to highlight issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion and provide a means, through the application of strengths-based assessment and skills development, to aid teachers and students to realize meaningful and consequential learning outcomes.

Dr. Piña is a member of the Nomlaki tribe, which is one of the constituent tribes of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. He currently lives in Georgia. He loves to cook and is an avid pen-and-paper roleplaying enthusiast.

Susannah Zietz, Ph.D.

Senior Evaluation Associate II

Susannah Zietz, P.hD., MPH, has over 10 years of experience in expanding the evidence base of public health and social programs through research and evaluation. Dr. Zietz has a passion for innovation in research and evaluation methods, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research. She has experience in proposal writing and working with clients and funders, and collaborating with researchers and organizations across the globe to manage the planning, budgeting, and the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data in many settings using qualitative and quantitative methods. She particularly enjoys providing technical assistance on how best to use evidence to partners, working with a client from a project’s inception to the dissemination of findings. 

Dr. Zietz has extensive experience in research and evaluation to improve the lives of people in low- and middle-income countries. She has worked on the research and evaluation of programs in multiple areas including adverse childhood experiences, adolescent mental health, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, intimate partner violence, peer violence, gender and women’s empowerment, HIV prevention and treatment, nutrition and food security, and social protection. Examples of her prior experience include consulting on a UNICEF qualitative sub-study of the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme on child labor that included a photo elicitation component where children were asked to take photos of their daily activities and discuss them. She was also the principal investigator on a qualitative project on adverse childhood experiences and intimate partner violence and peer violence perpetration among men in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 

Prior to joining Creative Research Solutions, Dr. Zietz was a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy. In this position, she worked with the Parenting Across Cultures, a longitudinal study of youth, mothers, and fathers across 9 different countries. She focused on understanding the predictors of youth violence perpetration and associated risk behaviors in different cultural contexts.

Dr. Zietz has extensive experience in providing training and technical assistance in topics such as qualitative data collection and analysis, quantitative analysis methods, evaluation research design, and strategies cross-cultural research collaboration. She has also taught graduate courses in public health intervention and evaluation and scale development methods at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has guest lectured on topics including mixed-methods research, exploratory factor analysis, and conducting cross-cultural research. 

Dr. Zietz earned her PhD. in Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a number of honors and awards including an endowed scholarship in Injury Prevention/Trauma Management, a Dissertation Research Fellowship, and US department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Awards for Hindi and Kiswahili. She earned her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College. 

Dr. Zietz is first author on seven first-author publications and has co-authored an additional seven publications. Her research can be found in peer-reviewed journals such as Children and Youth Services Review, Child Abuse and Neglect, Global Public Health, Journal of Adolescence, and Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Lauren Saenz, Ph.D.

Senior Evaluation Associate II

Dr. Lauren Saenz, PhD, is Senior Evaluation Associate II at Creative Research Solutions. She is an evaluator, researcher and methodologist with fifteen years of experience in the field of educational evaluation and a long record of collaborating with K-12 and higher education professionals, nonprofit and public organizations, and individuals to meet a diverse set of evaluation and research needs. She is committed to doing work that makes schools and schooling more equitable, more compassionate, more connected to the world, and more meaningful and stimulating and just for teachers and kids and families and communities. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with local, state, and national organizations to provide evaluation and research from strategic planning and design, to logic model and instrument development, to data analysis and presentation. 

Dr. Saenz received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, with a focus on English Literature, and her PhD in Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her early work in the field of education focused on the impacts of race-conscious education policies. Prior to joining CRS, she worked as an evaluation associate at the Institute for Schools and Society at Temple University, where she led and managed as co-principal investigator on multiple federally funded research and evaluation projects, including large-scale longitudinal studies with multiple school districts in the areas of teacher compensation and evaluation and 21st century skills-based school leadership development.  In subsequent roles, she designed and conducted evaluation and research projects exploring a wide range of issues and topics in education, including citizen science investigations, special education service programs, and career and technical education. Dr. Saenz was also previously a faculty member in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis graduate department in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and the Education Department at Bowdoin College, where she taught courses in evaluation and research design and education philosophy and policy, and supervised research and evaluation projects in multiple capacities. 

Dr. Saenz has presented work at numerous national and international conferences, including the American Educational Research Association, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the American Evaluation Association. She is the author and co-author of several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, which include publications in the Harvard Educational Review, the American Journal of Education, and the Journal of Childhood, Education, and Society. Her published work spans empirical and theoretical research in evaluation theory, educational philosophy, race-conscious education policy, and instrument development. She is also the co-creator of the SciEPOP app, an iOS-based observation tool designed to support research and practice in early science and engineering learning and benchmarked to the Next Generation Science Standards.

Keyondra Brooks, Ph.D.

Senior Evaluation Associate

Keyondra Brooks, Ph.D., is a senior evaluation associate at Creative Research Solutions (CRS). As an evaluator, she aims to conduct ethical, community-driven mixed methods research that promotes citizen empowerment. Keyondra is particularly passionate about addressing social determinates for wellbeing among LGBTQIA+ and ethnic minority populations.  She considers herself a lifelong learner dedicated gaining the skills and experiences necessary to help the communities she serves. She has experience working with organizations in the areas of juvenile justice, integrated health, and financial literacy. In addition, she has experience with board development, report writing, and strategic planning with various organizations.  

Keyondra obtained her Master’s in Clinical-Counseling Psychology from Valdosta State University. In this program, she received training in research methods, treatment planning, adult and child psychopathology, and intellectual and personality assessment.  As a practicum intern, she worked as a trauma-focused therapist completing individual and group counseling with adolescents at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County. Following, she earned her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. As part of this curriculum, she received instruction in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, grant writing, prevention, and leadership. During her Ph.D. practicum, she helped complete a mixed-methods process evaluation regarding the integrated health model at a federally qualified health center. As a student, she worked with a research team to complete a mixed methods needs and assets assessment observing racial disparities in juvenile justice involvement in Sedgwick County, Kansas. She also aided with a financial literacy assessment for Wichita State University students and assisted with board development and strategic planning sessions Storytime Village and The Wichita African American Council of Elders. She has presented at the Association of Black Psychologists, Midwestern Psychological Association, and Society for Community Research and Action conferences. Throughout these projects, she helped develop and execute focus groups and interviews, surveys, data analysis, literature reviews, and final reports for community organizations.  

She also completed several research projects during her studies. She completed a second-year project which observed the intersection between Black identity and future goals of middle school-aged male youth. For her dissertation, she investigated LGBTQIA+ individuals’ experiences with religion and suicidality.  She was also included in a research publication about perceived stress and college students and worked as a student consultant for Midwest Evaluation and Research.  Throughout her academic career, Keyondra instructed courses in leadership, college success, fieldwork in community psychology, psychology of learning, and psychology of women. She has a passion for expanding theoretical concepts within the discipline of psychology to everyday problems and making psychology and community psychology accessible to students and communities. In 2020, she received a departmental award for community psychology student of the year and was also the Michael P. Tilford Graduate Fellowship recipient. Keyondra is currently a member of the Society for Community Research and Action.

Blaire Hamelehle, MPA

Senior Evaluation Data Analyst

Blaire Hamelehle is a Senior Evaluation Data Analyst at Creative Research Solutions. Over the past seven years, she has gained expertise in data analysis and program evaluation, leveraging data-driven insights to enhance culturally responsive improvements to program efficacy. Blaire is well-versed in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods designs and analyses, having worked with data ranging from small community focus groups to large state datasets. She has collaborated with organizations of varying sizes, including small community-based groups and various state agencies. Additionally, Blaire has experience in qualitative research, particularly in managing and designing surveys and focus groups for diverse communities and purposes, such as ongoing program monitoring and strategic decision-making. She has also worked with nonprofits, local, state, and national organizations.

Passionate about community building, data collection, analysis, and accessible reporting, she excels in assisting cross-functional teams in uncovering the art of data storytelling through visually engaging data visualizations, dashboards, and reports. Blaire has worked closely with diverse teams to extract meaningful and actionable insights from complex datasets. Furthermore, Blaire has experience with incorporating community voices into qualitative and quantitative evaluation design and reporting by utilizing focus groups and interviews, ensuring inclusivity, representation, and empowerment for the communities involved.

Blaire has worked on a wide range of projects, including those centered on equitable student access to quality education, medically accurate &  LGBTQAI+ inclusive sexual health education, empowerment for individuals with developmental delays and disabilities, older adult inclusivity in city resources, and evaluating the impact of the TANF program in Colorado. She has conducted evaluations in Colorado schools to assess the impact of implementing LGBTQAI+ inclusive and medically accurate sexual health education. Additionally, she has evaluated K-12 education quality for Departments of Education, school districts, and schools nationwide. Blaire has also collaborated with city and state governments. She independently evaluated and provided recommendations for enhancing inclusive recreational programming for older adult communities in Lakewood, Colorado. Furthermore, she has worked at Colorado’s largest Community Centered Board, creating tools and measures to ensure efficient and empathetic support for individuals with developmental delays and disabilities using Medicaid waiver funds. Blaire has also been involved in securing ongoing TANF funding for the state of Colorado and assessing the program’s impacts on participants.

Prior to joining CRS, Blaire served as a Senior Manager of Analytics at a national education consulting nonprofit. In this role she helped schools, districts, and state departments of education understand students’ access to quality instruction, grade-appropriate assignments, classroom engagement, and high expectations from teachers.

She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from the University of Colorado Denver. She also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from American University in Washington, D.C. Her educational background has provided her with a strong foundation in research methodologies, data analysis techniques, and program evaluation.

Destiny Jones, MA

NCEA Research and Evaluation Manager

Destiny Jones is NCEA Research and Evaluation Manager at Creative Research Solutions. She strongly believes that valid research and community engagement are necessary to promote equitable change. In her previous roles, she has used evaluation to inform policy changes surrounding sexual harassment and bystander training within the workplace, as well as behavioral policies within residential programs for adolescents. 

Prior to joining Creative Research Solutions, Destiny served as a research team member at the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. There, she worked on projects that involved sexual harassment and bystander training, African American women’s experience with microagressions within social contexts, and pay equity for women. Destiny also worked with the Massachusetts Climate Equity Initiative, which was a workplace climate assessment of the Massachusetts State Senate. Her role consisted of interviewing government officials and their constituents, note-taking their responses, and coding and analyzing data to inform policy changes. Destiny also took on a research study where she examined acculturation strategies as coping mechanisms among African American women in the workplace. She collected and analyzed data from over 700 African American working women, gaining knowledge about their experiences with navigating the often Euro-centric U.S. workforce. Findings were used to help bring attention to the intersectional identities of African American women and to inform workplace policies around diversity, inclusion, and workplace culture. 

In addition, Destiny also served as a Residential Caseworker at The Key Program, Inc. in Methuen, Massachusetts. In this role, Destiny worked with adolescents living within government-regulated residential programs that needed additional support with social and emotional learning and coping. She used participatory-based methodologies and policy analysis to analyze the Massachusetts Behavioral Support Policy for residential programs. She examined how hands-on crisis intervention could impact a client’s health and social and emotional learning. She gave recommendations that could increase awareness of how policies are translated and employed in residential programs by program staff to help reduce the number of incidences where hands-on intervention is needed during crisis.

Destiny earned her Master’s in Community Social Psychology with a concentration in Social Justice from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML). Destiny is trained in program evaluation, participatory methodology, statistical analysis, qualitative and quantitative data collection, proposal writing, and grant writing. She was awarded the Provost Fellowship and the Most Outstanding Student Award for Community Social Psychology for her commitment to community engagement and excellence in research. She received her Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology from Spelman College, where she graduated magna cum laude and as a member of the Departmental Honors Psychology program.

Jem Olejarczyk, Ph.D

Data Scientist and Associate Project Manager

A photo of Jem Olejarczyk

Dr. Jem Olejarczyk is the Data Scientist and Associate Project Manager at Creative Research Solutions. As an educator, researcher, program evaluator, and data scientist, she works to foster a more sustainable, just, and equitable world through data-driven decision-making and culturally responsive evaluation. She applies the scientific method to investigate questions, examine trends, and measure impact with statistics. She currently volunteers for Statistics without Borders and Habitat for Humanity to support positive impact for communities in need.

Her work in evaluation began as a research associate and analyst at the Research, Evaluation, and Measurement (REM) Center within the College of Education at the University of South Carolina (UofSC) for two and a half years. As a research associate, Dr. Olejarczyk evaluated outcomes from education intervention programs using both private survey data and public data sources to measure the impact of an intervention. She also educated staff and students on statistical software, statistical methodologies, data visualization, reporting, current review standards in education, and other professional development workshops. She used hierarchical polynomial regression, propensity-score matching, factor analysis, latent profile analysis, and power analysis as part of her work with REM Center.

For over a decade, Dr. Olejarczyk has designed, analyzed, and conducted research within the area of cognitive psychology as a CITI-trained ethical researcher. During that time, she managed research projects, trained staff, and programmed experiments across five labs at three universities: Audition Lab at Northeastern University, Mollylab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visual Cognition Lab at UofSC, Knowledge of Orthographic Learning Lab at UofSC, and Morris Lab at UofSC. She collaborated with undergraduate and graduate student researchers, post-docs, and faculty on research related to attention and memory. Her dissertation examined the effects of memory for a target location during search while monitoring eye movements. Her statistical training included multivariate statistics, item response theory, multilevel modeling, and structural equation modeling. Her cognitive psychology research training included eye-tracking, transcranial direct current stimulation, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. 

As an educator for five years, Dr. Olejarczyk has mentored both undergraduate and graduate students during her time at UofSC. She taught courses in Cognitive Psychology as well as Research Methods. She continues to use teaching as a form of activism to promote critical thinking skills and inquisitive learning. 

Dr. Olejarczyk earned her Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina (Experimental Psychology), and her Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Biology with a minor in Biomedical Engineering). She has published in the Journal of Family Psychology, Visual Cognition, PLoS ONE, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Her previously published work may be found under the name “Jenn Olejarczyk”.

Rachel Messer, Ph.D.

Data Scientist

Rachel H. Messer, Ph.D. has a decade of experience leading quantitative and mixed-methods research that spans a range of language, identity, and social topics. Dr. Messer strives for research and evaluation to be a mutually-beneficial activity between researchers and participants, using inclusive practices as a way to engage in service and activism for participant populations. 

Dr. Messer’s expertise in research involving rural populations with complex intersectional identities from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Kentucky includes mixed-methods research on cognitive aging and language use, surveys and language assessments examining neurodiversity, risk-taking, and personality, use of semi-structured interviews and surveys to study stress and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic, and quantitative studies on linguistic use of gender stereotypes. She has written, implemented, coordinated, and collected data for NIA and NSF-sponsored programs for older adults and college students. She has also published over 25 original research papers, encyclopedia entries, and reviews, including venues such as Oxford Bibliographies Online, the International Journal of Humor Research, and Current Psychology. Dr. Messer has presented her research at conferences in the U.S. and abroad, as well as to lay audiences and local media outlets.

As an award-winning former psychology, speech pathology, and statistics professor, Dr. Messer created and implemented highly effective undergraduate and graduate courses focused on social determinants of health, relationships between language and culture, and radical acceptance of neurodiversity. Her evaluation work included the implementation and evaluation of a research fellowship program for first-generation and underserved students in Appalachia, and she co-chaired strategic planning to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the university structure using data-driven decision-making. 

Dr. Messer has also served as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research at Florida Atlantic University and Director of The Center for Teaching and Learning at Bethel College (KS), where she worked to increase the accessibility of higher education for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. Her former board work includes serving as academic representative on the board of the Kentucky Psychological Association and being a founding board member of the Appalachian College Association Center for Teaching & Learning. 

As a Data Scientist at CRS, Dr. Messer provides survey programming, data collection, data analysis, and reporting. She uses a critical lens to engage in ethical research, data justice, and data feminism, with social impact at the core of each process. She holds a Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from Oklahoma State University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and French from Morehead State University. 

Tina Wang, Ph.D.

Evaluation Associate II

Tina Wang, Ph.D. is an evaluation associate II at Creative Research Solutions (CRS). Dr. Wang has extensive research experience in different areas, including language assessment, educational assessment, and program evaluation related to STEM, public health, and mental health. Dr. Wang is skilled at conducting quantitative and qualitative research through the lens of culturally responsive and equity evaluation and assessment. Dr. Wang received her Doctoral degree in Cultural, Literacy, and Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She completed her postdoctoral studies at UTSA after graduation. Prior to joining CRS, Dr. Wang worked as a researcher at various research-oriented higher education institutions, including Louisiana State University, University of Kansas, and University of Texas at San Antonio Health and Science Center. 

Dr. Wang’s research and evaluation work serves linguistically and culturally diverse populations as well as the marginalized groups, including communities of color, low-income students, refugees, immigrants, learners with significantly cognitive disabilities, non-traditional older adults, bilingual students, and English language learners. Apart from research and program evaluation, Dr. Wang has a great passion for teaching. She received her Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Michigan State University (MSU) and was an English as a second language instructor for two years at INTO University. She also taught undergraduate and graduate students at the university level. 

Dr. Wang has presented in numerous national and international conferences, such as the American Education Research Association (AERA), Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Her first-authored articles were published in peer-reviewed journals including CALICO Journal, International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching (IJCALLT), and TESL-EJ. She was awarded two University life awards and three nationally competitive grants, including the Language Learning grant, the Educational Testing Services TOEFL Small Grant, and the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (NFMLTA) grant. She was also actively involved in various grant proposals and has facilitated her team secure fundings from the National Institute of Health, Najim Family foundation, Rackspace, HighImpact, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, and Department of Education, etc. Through Dr. Wang’s work in teaching, research, and evaluation, she strives to improve the equity, diversity, and inclusivity of education.

Queenstar Mensa-Bonsu, Ph.D.

Evaluation Associate II

Queenstar Mensa-Bonsu, Ph.D. is passionate about improving the lives of underserved communities. Her experience spans a broad range of rigorous research in equitable access to high-quality education for all children, improvement in student academic achievement, reduction in the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students, and increased access to and opportunity for post-secondary education for all children but particularly for underserved, and low-income students and their families.

Queenstar Mensa-Bonsu, Ph.D. has more than six years of experience in research and evaluation of projects at the state and federal levels. Her work focuses on evaluating policies and reforms with a particular concern for issues of equity, access, and evidence use in policymaking. She has been involved in a major national research project analyzing the trends in charter school openings relative to race and socio-economic status nationwide. For example, in 2018 she worked with a team of researchers on a project for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. These efforts resulted in a publication of a report entitled, “Charter School Deserts: High-Poverty Neighborhoods with Limited Educational Options”. Dr. Mensa-Bonsu has applied her skills in data collection, analysis and reporting, and geographic information system (GIS) which involves layering maps with (census) data to determine charter school placements in all 50 states. This innovative technique provides policymakers with insights and new ways to visualize data.

Queenstar has a deep understanding of public policy, especially educational policy. Her consulting background in community-based non-profit work has strengthened and reinforced her passion for making an impact in less privileged communities. Her focus on the role of community engagement in the long-term effectiveness of organizational work will lead to better implementation practices.
Her work focuses on finding solutions and evidence-based pathways to equitable access and the development of policies and reforms that will eradicate social disproportionality. Her work also emphasizes using a mixed-methods approach in the evaluation of programs, projects, and interventions to ensure that reforms in the education system lessen the disparity, to best provide the chance for fair access to education for all students, who represent the economic future of the country.
Dr. Mensa-Bonsu earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and her master’s in Political Science both from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Jeanette Au, MDP

Evaluation Associate II

Jeanette is a development practitioner, whose work is dedicated to creating a more accessible and just world. As an evaluator, she believes in employing mixed methods and human centered design. Before coming to Creative Research Solutions, Jeanette spent three years in South Africa as an education Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching English at a primary school. She also worked with organizations with a focus on immigrant and refugee populations, and eradicating poverty through a gender justice lens.

At Pacific Gateway Center, Jeanette worked with small farmers to create opportunities for social upward mobility. This included developing a needs assessment, responding to grant opportunities and connecting local agriculture and business experts with small farmers. With the Mayor’s Office of Atlanta, Office of Immigrant Affairs, she led the strategic planning of their Community Navigators Programs. The intention of the program was to create a pipeline of institutional knowledge in immigrant communities. To understand the impact of the office’s programming she also worked to create logic models and quantitative and qualitative surveys for the team to collect data from the participants. At CARE, she supported a variety of projects. One project was an internal evaluation that looked to trace and understand the components that went into high impact projects, such as donor relations, streams of funding, technical support and capacity and engagement. Another project was conducting research for a policy review on vaccine delivery, specifically around budgeting for Frontline Health Workers and access to vaccines for women. This research added to the conversation for an increase in investment in costs for delivery per vaccine to make the process more equitable and accessible to everyone.

Jeanette received her Masters in Development Practice at Emory University and her undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from Grinnell College. She was trained in qualitative research methods, participatory approaches and nonprofit leadership and management. Jeanette hopes to continue to engage in work that uplifts community engagement and builds long-term systemic change.

Zachariah Rabah, MS

Evaluation Associate II

Zachariah Rabah is an Evaluation Associate II at Creative Research Solutions (CRS). As an emerging evaluator, Zachariah has evaluation consulting experience with community-based organizations, nonprofits, governmental agencies, and educational institutions. Prior to joining CRS, Zachariah’s work focused on developing and implementing mixed-method evaluations focused on advocacy, social justice, public health, education and systems change. Zachariah’s professional approach to evaluation is informed by a philosophy of social transformation through a developmental evaluation framework. He has curated publications for fellow evaluators that offer virtual adaptations to popular participatory evaluation methods and moderated panel discussions on evaluation topics. His previous work includes serving as an advocacy and civic engagement specialist at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, a program analyst at United Way Bay Area, an organizational development assistant at Hamai Consulting, and an instructor of participatory evaluation methods to managers of New York City public agencies.

He has provided thought leadership and strategic planning for organizations working to uplift Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and Arab voices, including projects for youth reimagining after school programs, universities working to improve their campus climate, workforce training programs for social work graduate students, and cross-county regional home visiting coordination. Zachariah has frontline racial justice community organizing experience that includes campaign-building, facilitating community workshops and teach-ins, speaking on and moderating scholar-activist panels and roundtables, leading delegations, and organizing conferences and actions. He has presented at several conferences, including the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA), on topics such as data justice, Indigenous data sovereignty, and Culturally Responsive Equitable Evaluation (CREE) theory, design and methods. He sits on the Advisory Board of DonkeySaddle Projects and is a member of the AEA’s Systems in Evaluation, Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation, and Independent Consulting topical interest groups.

Zachariah holds a Master of Science degree in Measurement and Evaluation and a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the American University, Washington D.C. He received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from San Francisco State University.

Stephanie Hasford

Evaluation Associate II

Stephanie Hasford is an Evaluation Associate II at Creative Research Solutions (CRS). In this role, she is responsible for completing both formative and summative evaluations of programs and initiatives within the sectors of philanthropy, education, health, philanthropy, and related domains. She also participates within evaluation teams on all aspects of projects, including the evaluation design, evaluation plan, methodology and instrument development, data collection procedures, analysis, and reporting.

Before joining CRS, Stephanie was a Research Associate at Strength in Numbers Consulting Group. As a member of the quantitative team, she conducted analysis, created data visualizations, and synthesized findings for local and national organizations, primarily to evaluate programs and research issues in the current social climate. One of her most notable accomplishments in this role was her contribution to the LGBTQ+ Safe Spaces National Needs Assessment, the first of its kind featuring data from hundreds of organizations nationwide about hate violence, reporting and resolution, and hate prevention needs.

She worked for two years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Risk and Resilience Lab, where the focus was researching the interplay between biology and social context across the life course. Some impactful research she worked on includes the UBELONG study, which was conducted to understand how Penn undergraduate students’ experiences on campus influence their daily emotions, behavior, and grades. Another study focused on stability in risk and protective factors in Philadelphia adolescents’ lives, particularly which of their socially supportive relationships enhance their well-being in the face of adversity. She was a leading author in a research publication on the presence of depression in siblings with differential exposures to gun or knife violence, which was accepted by the Development and Psychopathology peer-reviewed journal. 

Stephanie believes that volunteering in every community she enters is essential to being an upstanding community member. In the last few years, she has volunteered at many organizations, including the Trevor Project, Child Mind Institute, Bridges to Wealth, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and Ase Academy. She is currently a Digital Crisis Counselor at the Trevor Project, where she is trained to answer chats and texts from LGBTQ young people who reach out about issues such as coming out, LGBTQ identity, depression, and suicide.

She received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and conducted her senior thesis on the relationship between exposure to community violence and later antisocial and criminal behavior. Her areas of interest include educational equity, developmental psychopathology, and BIPOC adolescent mental health. Her clinical experience comes from an internship at the Autism Clinical Center at the Child Mind Institute, where she taught youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) how to engage in prosocial behaviors. Stephanie’s interest in research comes from her goal of improving access to mental health services for youth, as well as restructuring the way mental health is discussed in BIPOC populations. She plans to attend a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, where she will continue on her path of being a wellness advocate for BIPOC youth exposed to adverse childhood experiences.

Eduardo Medina, MS

Evaluation Data Analyst

Eduardo Medina works as an Evaluation Data Analyst at Creative Data Solutions (CRS). He entered the data analysis field in 2016, mainly focusing on natural sciences topics before transferring his data analysis skills to dive into social inequality problems. Before joining CRS, Eduardo worked as a Consultant for Experis at Meta. He focused on data quality analysis on facial expression recognition data to enhance machine learning models. In addition, Eduardo has experience in protocol development at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In NASA, Eduardo had to develop a photomultiplier testing agenda that had to be followed by several laboratories around the U.S. to launch a satellite that would help pioneer quantum communication. At the University of Minnesota, Eduardo worked on developing water-splitting electrochemical catalyst design methods. He collected the outputs from electrochemical reaction simulations using different parameters (the elements that identified the catalyst). He analyzed these to determine which chemical identities would enhance the catalytic reaction. Eduardo’s data analysis beginnings come from the University of Texas at Austin. His first major problem was in developing theory in protein folding dynamics. He simulated trajectories that represented the proteins’ transition from an unfolding state to a folded state. Eduardo analyzed thousands of transitions on advanced statistical aspects. His main goal was to develop theory with the help of his colleagues that would predict the same conclusions gained from his simulations and statistical outcomes. After two years of work, Eduardo and his colleagues published the paper “Transition path times in non-Markovian activated rate processes” in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. This work cemented Eduardo’s interest in data analysis and statistics. Eduardo shares his passion for data analysis with education. He is interested in the spread of high-quality education among disadvantaged communities. He started by teaching free mathematics classes in his local libraries to children from low-income areas in Austin. He was also part of a study conducted by project SEED, where he attended low-income communities and conducted a survey on children that translated for their parents. This survey was to investigate the stress level evolution in children occasionated by the translation and help of problems related to adults. He took this as an opportunity to outreach and spread college education awareness. During his graduate school days in Minneapolis, Eduardo provided free high school mathematics instruction to Latin American immigrants trying to pass their General Educational Development test (GED). Eduardo is currently working on designing a website that provides free high-quality advanced college topics in Spanish that are usually found only in non-Spanish languages.

Eduardo received his Master of Science degree in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He got his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rachel Greenlee, MS

Quantitative Data Analyst

Rachel Greenlee is a Quantitative Data Analyst at Creative Research Solutions. Her work at nonprofits over the last decade has instilled a passion for supporting the on-the-ground professionals who work directly with and for communities to promote diversity, resilience, and dignity. This experience eventually led to a love of data and its ability to identify effective programs and methods when often constrained by tight budgets and staffing. 

In the public health sphere, Rachel has experience as an evaluator for programs such as tobacco cessation, mental health access, income-based dental services, and cholesterol and blood pressure screening clinics. She has organized focus groups, developed survey instruments, overseen data collection, and analyzed and interpreted program survey results. For a Triennial Community Health Survey, she created quantitative and qualitative data products for professionals and the general public that focused on trends for various health issues in the local communities. Rachel also has experience as a database administrator, providing data analysis and data dashboarding, for an environmental nonprofit working with community-based organizations in Central American and Indigenous Lands in the United States. She developed a Spanish-language Shiny app to display and report field-collected data on clean cookstove installations by Honduran project partners. 

Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Dakota where she was involved with a longitudinal Healthy Aging Study based on one-on-one interviews with older adults that looked at the social determinants of health in rural settings, with a focus on perceived control in physical health. She also volunteered extensively with the refugee population resettled in Grand Forks, North Dakota, mentoring and tutoring New Americans and eventually working for a local nonprofit with the mission of fostering community bonds between long-time residents and their new neighbors. 

Rachel has also earned a Master of Science degree in Data Science from the City University of New York’s School of Professional Studies. Through a fellowship opportunity, she collaborated on writing code for the Youth Ask Survey data, developing a R Shiny-based app intended to be utilized for and by the diverse youth represented in the New York City-based survey. She authored an R package called AtlasMaker that leverages R modules to generate multi-tabbed leaflet maps for Shiny apps. Her coursework covered data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and predictive modeling. Further, equity is a high priority in any project Rachel is on, and she’s sought out numerous trainings to continually deepen her understanding of equity in a variety of data-based projects and recognizes that data is neither inherently neutral nor objective. 

While at CRS Rachel looks forward to combining her nonprofit background, program evaluation experience, and data science skills to contribute to equitable evaluation projects that improve and strengthen underserved communities.

Ashley Josey, M.Ed

Project Manager

Ashley Josey M.Ed is a Project Manager at Creative Research Solutions. In her role, Ashley brings a task oriented, goal driven mindset alongside her education and multiple years of PM experience.

Before joining CRS, Ashley worked as a Project manager in both the healthcare and education sectors. In her work with health care facilities Ashley worked to help build and maintain lasting relationships with clients and partners by understanding focus and needs, and anticipating them in advance. She had a focus in technology implementation, patient satisfaction, employee communication across multiple hospital settings and large scale outpatient facilities construction. She quickly moved her way up the chain by utilizing her knowledge of risk management alongside coordinating internal and external resources to expedite workflow and efficiency.

As far as her work in the education field, Ashley worked and successfully managed several multiyear projects in three of the largest school districts in Texas. She aided in the process of structuring, managing, and integrating, multi-track project performance databases for multiple digital, print, social, broadcast, and experiential projects, with an eye on overall progress with focus on internship opportunities for high school students. During her time there Ashley helped to place hundreds of students in positions where they could transfer post graduation into careers making middle waged earnings.

Ashley graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a Bachelors of Science in Health Science and a Masters degree in Education. She is also currently a PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology. During her time at Stephen F Austin, Ashley found a passion for all things event planning and women empowerment. She now hosts an annual gala with a focus on college educated African American women where hundreds of women are able to network, empower and spread love amongst one another. In addition to this Ashley volunteers for numerous adolescent mentorship programs across North TX under Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, of which she has been a proud member for 8 years.

Ashley comes to CRS with experience in areas of quantitative and qualitative data collection, a love for human growth and development, and is trained in the areas of program implementation and management, risk management, process improvement, organizational culture and change management. While at CRS she hopes to grow in the areas of research and evaluation and statistical analysis.

Andrea Evans, MPS

Project Coordinator II

Andrea Evans is a high impact Project Coordinator II at Creative Research Solutions. In just five years, Andrea obtained a Master’s of Professional Studies in Management and Bachelor’s of Science in Communications from Cornell University. She is also certified in Project Management from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Andrea has a track record of being known as a superb communicator, presenter and collaborator with executives and both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Andrea has diversified experience across Technology, Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail industries, contributing significantly within a multi-billion dollar global leader providing services to 84% of Global Fortune 500 companies at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Andrea’s passion for Project Management stems from her desire to have a positive and meaningful impact on her clients.

Andrea is a creative storyteller who is formally trained and passionate about human-centered design aesthetics, allowing consistent delivery of scalable ideas, engaging marketing collateral, and data-driven reports – all within tight deadlines and competing demands from clients and relevant stakeholders. She is a curious leader with a proven track record of collaborating cross-functionally on insight-led, digital and social marketing campaigns, and partnerships, as well as dynamic training webinars and video content.

Prior to joining CRS, Andrea worked as an Operations Specialist at Talkiatry centered in the virtual healthcare space for Psychiatry and Therapy. It was there that she gained meaningful experience providing KPI and metric reports and assessments to inform business practices. She was also very hands-on in the data collection, analysis and reporting sector for the practice.

Additionally, Andrea demonstrates her care for the community through her work at HealingSpace. Andrea’s vision for this initiative is to provide more accessible mental health and wellness resources to Black Women. Andrea wants to address the gap in the current level of accessibility to mental healthcare for WOC and breakdown stigmas that are still prevalent in today’s society surrounding mental health. With her background in Operations and Management, she understands how important it is to thoroughly research possible solutions to this case that will be impactful for as many individuals as possible.

Sadhna Jadoo-Roopnarine, MBA

Project Coordinator and Human Resources Manager

Sadhna Jadoo-Roopnarine is a Project Coordinator and Human Resources Manager at Creative Research Solutions.  She is a versatile and innovative administrative professional with over nine years of experience supporting organizations in improving system processes, policies, and procedures.  Her diversified skills include Recruitment, Compensation, Employee Relations, Project Management, and providing managerial support to her team as needed. 

She was employed as an Office Administrator at a Real Estate company in New York and was responsible for the daily operations. Sadhna took multiple initiatives to improve the functionality of the office, such as creating and implementing a new system of organizing files and documents that significantly increased the efficiency of the business by almost 30%. She also assessed and monitored the timeline and progress of property sales, so deliverables were carried out on time and deadlines were met.     

At the beginning of her career path, she worked at the Guyana Revenue Authority as a Senior Clerk supporting her team in acquiring a talented pool of employees to achieve the organization’s goals.   She collaborated with the technical team to develop and implement a computerized time management platform that was deployed across the institution’s twenty-five regional locations, improving productivity and efficiency.   She then was promoted to HR Officer, assisting the implementation of HR strategies that helped to transform the HR department, allowing cross-department collaboration to help employees reach their full potential. Some of the areas included leave management, conflict management, employee reward and recognition programs, and a performance appraisal system.  

In addition to her professional life, Sadhna is very passionate about making positive changes and improving the lives of less fortunate families through volunteering. Before moving to the USA, for over ten years she was a member of the Dharmic Naujawaan, a type of organization fostering the development of Hindu youths by making a significant impact in Guyana, through the initiation, facilitation, sponsorship, propagation, and implementation of religious, educational, cultural, and social activities.  With this organization, she worked on planning and coordinating workshops, medical outreaches, feeding programs, and benefit sessions for these families. Along with her team, they conducted surveys to determine areas that needed improvement in these underdeveloped communities and organized fundraising events to support the need.

She recently began volunteering at a local 211 help hotline center in Orange County, California, providing phone support to residents and delivering the community resources they need.  She believes that there are multiple resources available for these individuals and guiding them in the right direction would result in making monumental differences in their lives and, by extension their communities. 

Sadhna obtained her Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Guyana, Guyana, South America. She also holds her Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute. Sadhna sees these academic achievements as ways of improving herself personally and professionally. She is very goal driven and a self-motivator who enjoys new challenges. These new challenges she sees as a new learning experience.

Alex Boyce, MS

Project Coordinator

Alexandra Boyce is a Project Coordinator at Creative Research Solutions. Alex is an experienced project, administrative, and event management professional, having spent the last six years working with teams and clients to exceed their goals and expectations. She excels in creating efficient workflow processes, proposal writing and implementation, and flexibly and proactively supporting teams. Alex is passionate about supporting meaningful projects which have a positive local and global impact. 

Prior to joining CRS, Alexandra worked as a Client and Project Manager with a startup company in Houston. Alex supported her 15 clients’ ongoing projects both virtually and on-site, helping to grow the company’s client base from 2 to 28 clients. She also helped to build and implement the company’s project management processes, iteratively developing new tools and systems to streamline the client experience. 

Alex formerly worked in a number of roles within higher education. As a Research Administrator and Project Coordinator, Alex supported academics and SMEs in the execution of a $5.2 million reasoning and intelligence analysis research project. Alex developed and implemented project management processes, tools, and systems to facilitate project success. As an External Relations Team Coordinator, Alex was responsible for supporting a team of five individuals in fundraising, alumni relations, student engagement, and external relations. Alex implemented a PM strategy of Lessons Learned sessions for student travel experiences which improved the program process and allowed for more successfully implemented future student programs – an area near and dear to her, as she has led student travel to four countries and been to 11 countries and counting. 

Alex holds a Master’s of Science in Environmental Studies from Ohio University and a Master’s of Arts in International Affairs from the University of New Hampshire. Alex has a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire. 

Melissa Shea-Brooks, BS, CH, RMT

Executive Assistant

Melissa Shea-Brooks is an Executive Assistant at Creative Research Solutions. Melissa has always been driven to study and understand human behavior. During this time she spent years as an empathetic customer relations manager with a positive-solution seeking mindset.

Melissa strives to build lasting relationships; and thrives when collaborating with people to ensure that clients are satisfied with all services and work provided and is dedicated to overcoming any challenges that clients may face.Combining her business knowledge with her zest for the development of positive and expanding relationships, she is strategic when finding solutions to maximize satisfaction for both clients and members of the team.

After obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Melissa spent some time in Marketing Development at which time she researched statistics to support the marketing material and website content that was created in conjunction with the support of the sales staff. Using her expertise in customer relations, she helped to create effective marketing campaigns which lead to an increased sales and the successful onboarding of new clients on an annual basis.

Melissa Shea-Brooks is committed to her quest to understand human behavior on all levels. She is a published author; having written two books within the last ten years.

Melissa founded The Blue Halen Project in 2016 in an effort to help people to see that they have the ability to heal themselves from within using methods like various art creations, and later on added more sectors like Hypnosis and Reiki Energy Healing. 

Melissa also holds an Associate’s Degree in Paraprofessional Education from the University of Phoenix and a Professional Diploma in Professional Photography from the New York Institute of Photography.

Please see our capabilities statement to learn more about our company.