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René Nutter is the U.S. Food Security & Agriculture Client Account Lead. She has more than two decades of experience helping further food security and education in women and children. From studies with Yale, Harvard, and the Gates Foundation to a long and successful partnership with the USDA Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), she has led large data collection studies and evaluations, provided technical assistance, and helped train the next generation of researchers.

Dr. Fiona Mactaggart is a multi-disciplinary technical advisor with more than 10 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL); infectious disease control; and public health. As a co-lead of Abt's MERL portfolio, she draws on complexity theory and scientific methods to help clients test what works, discover why it works, and provide timely evidence-based recommendations to inform important decisions about policy and practice. Mactaggart contributes to business development, programme delivery, and thought leadership. She works in five key areas: monitoring (e.g., design of digital tools and visualisation platforms) research (e.g., cross-sectional survey design), evaluation methodologies (e.g., contribution analysis), learning (e.g., portfolio level evidence-informed strategic decision making), and cross-cutting MERL capabilities (e.g., adaptive management and GEDSI). Mactaggart has worked extensively in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Roslyn M. Brock, a nationally recognized civil rights, health policy, and equity advocate, is Abt Global’s Chief Global Equity Officer.  Brock is Chairman Emeritus of the National Board of Directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  She was the youngest person ever elected NAACP chairman and the fourth woman to hold the position.She has dedicated her career to improving equity and opportunity for all and is a widely honored change agent for social justice with deep experience in health.

Dr. Hecht is an environmental economist with more than 19 years of experience in economic analysis, policy analysis, and research. His primary areas of expertise are in environmental economics, cost-benefit analysis, regulatory economics, and decision analysis. Dr. Hecht is an expert in estimating the monetary value of “non-market” benefits, such as improvements in environmental quality, public health, safety, and security. Dr. Hecht has over 10 years of experience in the economic analysis of climate change and in evaluating the costs and benefits of climate change mitigation measures.

Sean McClellan, Ph.D. is a mixed-methods researcher with over a decade of experience in full cycle health services research. He has experience managing research projects, developing analytic designs, cleaning and analyzing administrative data, fielding rigorous surveys, conducting qualitative interviews, and communicating findings in plain language.

Sarah Gibson is a project-management specialist with 23 years of experience in public policy research. She has more than 20 years of experience managing complex projects, implementing random assignment studies and researching and analyzing policy for clients such as the Social Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is proficient in project management, including resource management, budgeting and quality control. She develops process improvement recommendations, identifies end-user system requirements, and designs and delivers training. She helps federal agencies implement regulations and track progress toward meeting goals.

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.

Mbuso Jama has more than 17 years of experience as a Monitoring Evaluation Accountability Research and Learning expert (MEAL and MERL). His work has involved humanitarian, rehabilitation, and development efforts in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Partnership countries. His experience ranges from designing MEAL systems for adaptive management to impact evaluations. He has worked on projects funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), United Nations, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Canadian International Development Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, European Union, and European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Alan McCagh has more than 20 years of experience in complex program management and technical oversight for government institutional strengthening, economic development, community development, democratic governance, and in the law and justice sector. A former senior Western Australia police officer, Alan has expertise in institutional strengthening of the police, courts, and prisons. He also has experience with grant-making facilities to improve community access to legal aid, policy dialogue, research, and crime prevention.

Adam Schaefer has over 16 years’ experience developing and managing environmental epidemiology research and evaluation projects. He is an expert in the health impacts of environmental exposures and has worked on both national and international projects, focusing on infectious disease, toxicology, health surveillance, and One Health. Before coming to Abt, Schaefer was a researcher at Florida Atlantic University. He has published numerous epidemiological studies in peer-reviewed journals.