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Melissa Schweisguth is a market systems development and economic growth expert with more than sixteen years of experience in the international development and food and agriculture private sectors. She has focused extensively on designing programs, providing technical expertise for implementation, developing market systems approaches and guidance, and developing and delivering staff training.

Dr. Heinrich Hock is an economist with 19 years of experience conducting research on labor, education, disability employment, and social insurance. His work focuses on producing results that help policymakers and program staff understand 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. Hock has led work on over a dozen labor-related projects for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other funders to assess the outcomes for groups such as dislocated workers, youth and adult jobseekers with disabilities, and veterans, among other groups. Hock also has played a key role in U.S. Department of Education (ED) studies to identify solutions for improving career outcomes among special education and adult education participants. 

Taylor Williamson has nearly 20 years of experience leading business development efforts, managing programs, developing strategy, and conducting health systems research. He has more than a decade of supervisory experience as a project manager or technical lead for five U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded projects. Williamson focuses on decentralization and local governance, information systems, health insurance design, public policy, and capacity strengthening. He has experience with such health systems challenges as improving data quality and data use at national and sub-national levels; reducing service barriers for HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and family planning; assessing and improving civil society and local government capacity; and strengthening decentralization. He has published several manuscripts and working papers on civil society capacity strengthening, advocacy, evidence use, decentralization, and human rights.

Laura Blake has more than 20 years of experience in leading scientific programs and research in the environmental science and policy domain. She has deep expertise in surface water quality restoration and protection and has spent her career designing and implementing scientific studies to support efforts to protect human health and aquatic environments. She has significant knowledge of Clean Water Act rules and regulations and has extensive experience supporting federal and state regulatory programs with implementation of and compliance with the federal Clean Water Act.

Kelly Batsiokis is a management consultant with 20 years’ experience in the education, health, and human services sectors. She has worked in areas ranging from health promotion and adult education to business case development to monitoring and evaluation of health programs. She has worked for non-government organizations and public and private organizations.Kelly has led or contributed to approximately 30 projects, including a diverse range of reviews, evaluations, and business planning projects spanning local, state, and Commonwealth government organizations. Her project roles included project management, reporting, survey development and analysis, literature reviews, stakeholder and consumer interviews, focus groups, workshops, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.

Katie Kitchin brings more than 25 years of expertise in housing and human services policy that advances the overall well-being of people and communities. She is a subject matter expert in housing finance/development, technical assistance and training, homelessness, justice, and child welfare housing interventions. At Abt, she directs the company’s state and local housing strategy, and partners with clients, local agencies, and organizations on business development and growth opportunities.