Brooke Abrams

Brooke Abrams is a trained political scientist and researcher. With over 11 years of experience, she specializes in applied housing and health, bringing expertise in managing and contributing to place-based, mixed-method, and community-centered solutions. Her work spans research, evaluation, and technical assistance (TA) projects across diverse policy domains, delivering innovative and tailored strategies to drive impactful change.

As a Client Solutions Architect at Abt, Abrams plays a pivotal role in designing client-focused frameworks and solutions that emphasize rigorous, data-informed, multi-disciplinary, and population-tailored design. She specializes in community-specific, monitoring, evaluation, and technical assistance approaches to engage and work alongside persons with lived expertise.

Abrams has acquired deep experience working alongside an extensive portfolio of clients including but not limited to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Planning, Research (DOJ), and Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Annie E Casey Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase.

Currently, Abrams’ main projects involve leading housing systems improvement TA to several communities, as well as strategic engagement advisement and learning collaborative support on two criminal justice projects. In each role, Abrams supports communities by efficiently employing data-informed, system-modeling approaches that improve community capacity, asset building, and program effectiveness. External to Abt, Abrams’ leadership supported dozens of states and communities nationwide to develop and implement sustainable, meaningful solutioning and engagement, programming, and service provision. Her research has extensively influenced public policy initiatives during two legislative sessions in New Mexico. 

Prior to joining Abt, Abrams’ research advanced criminal justice reform and health outcomes across New Mexico. In particular, Abrams co-led a study investigating the use of solitary confinement in New Mexico’s prisons. The study’s findings helped inform and ultimately pass the state’s House Bill 364, which limits the instances in which state and county jails use solitary confinement among youth, persons living with mental illness, and pregnant women.  In addition, Abrams co-developed an ongoing community intervention employing participatory action research approaches to address crime and community capacity in New Mexico.      

As a research consultant, Abrams worked closely with the University of New Mexico’s Native American Budget and Policy Institute to examine the impact of well-supported and well-funded early childhood programs and workforce development across tribal communities in New Mexico. Outside of her research career, Brooke has dedicated her time working with TRIO programs to mentor both college and high school students through the academic pipeline
 

Expertise

• Community-engaged technical assistance and research
• Impact and outcome evaluation
• Qualitative data analysis/facilitation/development
• Data visualization and dissemination
• Policy analysis
• Survey development
• Quantitative data analysis/management

Key Projects

• Emergency Solutions Grant CARES Act, HUD
• Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry & Housing Systems TA, HUD
• Employment Processes researcher, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Small Business Financial Stability, JPMorgan Chase Challenge Grants
• Casey Family Child Well-Being research