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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.

Dr. Denis Sinzinkayo is a medical doctor with a decade’s worth of experience working in both public and private hospitals as well as serving as a district medical officer and the deputy director of the National Malaria Control Program of the Ministry of Public Health in Burundi.Dr. Sinzinkayo currently serves as the Chief of Party (COP) on the Abt-led U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative Evolving Vector Control to Fight Malaria Project (PMI Evolve) in Burundi. He works with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to strengthen its capacity to conduct vector surveillance activities and provide assistance on government-led vector control activities. He also coordinates bi-monthly entomological surveys across nine sentinel sites in Burundi.

Jules Nahimana is a health program manager with almost two decades of experience working in the public health sector. He has worked extensively on malaria vector control programs, especially those implementing indoor residual spraying (IRS), in countries including Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, and Rwanda. In these roles, he has worked with many high-level organizations including the Ministries of Health (MOH) and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

Shriya Kalavapudi brings 11 years of experience in dissemination and communication planning and strategy. She has experience with social media management, web and social media analytics, and content development. She also has expertise in communications products and creative materials development, including newsletters, reports, briefs, journal articles, blogs, videos, and infographics. In addition, she has experience with outreach and dissemination, primarily in the federal healthcare space. Kalavapudi translates complex information (health information, data, and research) for audiences of various technical knowledge, including policymakers and practitioners.

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.

Benny Kil is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a certified scrum master (CSM) with over 15 years of project and product management experience—working in business analysis and project delivery in the federal, state, and commercial areas with a focus on technology and digital processes. He has experience in leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver client requirements using agile methodologies (scrum and kanban). He is an experienced leader who can provide IT project and portfolio management oversight through the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), including client management, business requirements elicitation, IT software development, quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC), testing, and deployment. Kil has led projects with a variety of federal clients, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

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.

Dr. Heinrich Hock is an economist with 19 years of experience conducting research on labor, education, disability, and social insurance. His work focuses on producing results that help policymakers and program staff understand program outcomes for priority populations and research-based options for improving outcomes. He develops rigorous and feasible plans for research designs, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of findings.

Hadiza Soumaila is a medical entomologist, biologist, and scientist with more than 15 years of global experience in the field entomological surveillance for diseases such as malaria, Rift Valley fever, and yellow fever. She has substantial experience in vector-borne diseases and served as head of the Vector Control Unit of Niger’s National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) for more than 13 years. She has taught biological sciences, hematology, parasitology, and entomology at the Niger National School of Public Health for more than 20 years.

Désiré A. Boko is a primary care provider with more than three decades of healthcare experience, including extensive work in health system strengthening with U.S. government-funded projects. He has served as chief of party (COP) in fragile state settings in an environment of crisis and insecurity, including Mali and Haiti. He provides technical leadership and managerial oversight in the implementation of project strategy for such areas as health financing, health sector reform, human resources, and decentralization.