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Lauren Pittenger comes to Abt with more than 20 years of experience working in or as a consultant to federal government agencies. She has strong grounding in research and research-based consulting to government clients. She also has extensive experience leading and growing business, managing technical and scientific projects, and coaching and supporting account teams. She has served as a director at Guidehouse, scientific program manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, and lab manager at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network, the Gates Foundation and the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Natalie Matthews has over 15 years of experience in the field of homelessness, with a focus on direct service, system planning, database administration, and technical assistance and implementation (TA). Since joining Abt in 2009, Matthews has served in a variety of roles on its U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Compass TA cooperative agreements. She’s also worked on several locally and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-funded TA projects, as well as research, monitoring and evaluation projects.  She served as the project director for the VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) monitoring project, served on the evaluation team for HUD’s first evaluation of rapid re-housing programs for families (2012), and led the evaluation of Hartford Connecticut’s homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program (2014).

Elizabeth Giardino’s evaluation and technical assistance work on housing, community development, asset building, and government innovation policies and programs promotes more equitable access to opportunity and healthy outcomes for people across the U.S. Giardino specializes in leading teams, strategic planning, and relationship building, and has proven expertise in community-based participatory research and incorporating equitable approaches into technical assistance engagements.

Meghan Henry is a social science researcher with over 15 years of experience in public policy and program evaluation, specifically in the fields of housing and homelessness and the intersection of homelessness and education. Henry has extensive experience leading evaluations, including large data collection efforts, conducting qualitative data collection, data analysis, and outcome evaluations. As project director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, she has considerable experience synthesizing large amounts of information to make the data accessible and actionable for federal, state, local, and philanthropic clients.

Sandra Wilson is an internationally known expert in research synthesis and meta-analysis. She has conducted systematic reviews of educational programs, most notably on school-based violence prevention and high school dropout programs.Prior to joining Abt, Wilson was the associate director of the Peabody Research Institute and a research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. Wilson led and supported research projects at the Center for Evaluation Research and Methodology at Vanderbilt.

Researcher and policy analyst Karin Martinson has extensive knowledge of workforce development and income security policies affecting low-income populations.  With more than 30 years of experience, her research focuses on identifying effective strategies to assist disadvantaged groups seeking to gain a foothold in the labor market. The groups include low-skilled adults, cash-assistance recipients, the long-term unemployed, and those with disabilities or substance use disorders. She oversees Abt’s large portfolio of work at the U.S. Department of Labor and has worked with a wide range of federal and state agencies and philanthropic organizations.  She has led numerous research and evaluation projects, primarily in workforce and income support arena, as a project director, principal investigator, task leader, and content expert. She co-authored more than 50 research reports and briefs and contributed to published volumes on workforce policy. 

Andrew Clarkwest has more than 18 years of experience in workforce policy and evaluation design. He has held lead management and technical roles in many quantitative and mixed-methods studies, including multi-site random assignment evaluations, quasi-experimental impact evaluations, and descriptive studies. He develops evidence to meet the practical needs of program and policy audiences and makes complex research accessible. He has translated research insights through systematic evidence reviews, technical assistance, and easy-to-consume dissemination products.

David Kaz, a principal associate in Abt’s Social and Economic Policy Division, has nearly 20 years of experience providing technical assistance, training, research, and policy analysis. He has worked on a wide range of programs and policies that affect low-income populations. He has directed, designed, and conducted both large- and small-scale, multi-faceted technical assistance projects for federal and state agencies and other clients and stakeholders. Clients have included the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service, Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services, King County, and the City of Seattle. He has worked on workforce legislation with members of Congress.

Dr. Sebastian Lemire is an evaluation expert with decades of experience designing and managing evaluations of education and workforce development programs. He has extensive experience with a broad range of evaluation approaches, quasi- and non-experimental designs, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, as well as systematic evidence reviews.

Allan Porowski joined the Social and Economic Policy Division of Abt Global in 2014 as a principal associate. He is a leading expert in the design, execution and analysis of randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies and national cross-site evaluations of education, health and other social interventions.