In this episode, I chat with Corey Newhouse and Jessica Manta Meyer, both from Public Profit, about how to make evaluation capacity building sticky for the organizations we work with.
Corey got her start as a teacher at Summerbridge Cincinnati in the early 1990s and has been involved in educational equity and social justice movements ever since. She founded Public Profit to build a team that would seamlessly blend social science research methods, organizational change strategy, and a deep commitment to supporting changemakers.
As the Founder and Principal of Public Profit, Corey leads the team’s strategic direction, external relationships, and business development. In addition, Corey serves as an internal thought partner to project teams, assisting with the design of Public Profit’s engagements in evaluation, capacity building, and strategic program design. She is co-author of Public Profit’s Creative Ways to Solicit Stakeholder Feedback and Dabbling in the Data, and a contributor to Evaluation Failures: 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned. She is a co-editor of the volume, Measure, Use, Improve! Data Use in Out-of-School Time.
Jessica began her career as a peer volunteer on a national youth talkline providing referrals and support to youth in crisis. Challenged by what she heard on the talkline, and by some of her own experiences with the health care system, she developed an interest in health education, equity and advocacy, which launched a career in the social services sector. Eventually, Jessica combined that with a lifetime love of numbers and inquiry, which led her to program evaluation.
Prior to joining Public Profit, Jessica had several years of experience creating, directing and evaluating a range of youth development, LGBT, and health programs. Her work has run the gamut of nonprofit and social service roles including nonprofit finance, human resources, development and agency-led evaluations.
Jessica directs many of the projects at Public Profit. She designs evaluation studies, develops project strategy, and manages implementation including all aspects of data collection, analysis, and reporting. An expert facilitator, Jessica also facilitates large stakeholder meetings and evaluation capacity building trainings, and provides evaluation coaching to clients and staff alike.
