Subject: New Methods Centers Directors
From: The Methods Centers <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:45:16 +0000

The Methods Centers

Methods Center

The News

Capacity Building

New Co-Director: Brooke Spellman

Evaluation

New Co-Director: Jay Gribble

In addition to the new Survey Center co-directors, we are pleased to welcome two new co-directors to the Capacity and Evaluation Methods Centers!

Capacity Building Methods Center

Brooke Spellman, from has been named the co-director of the Capacity Building Methods Center.

Brooke Spellman, a Principal Associate with our Social and Economic Policy (SEP) Division., has more than 20 years of experience in research and technical assistance on community development issues.  She primarily works with U.S. government and local clients to develop strategies and build local capacity to improve policy and programmatic responses to homelessness and poverty.  Spellman has a bachelor’s in Architecture from Wellesley College and a master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Florida.

More information is available on the Capacity Building Methods Center Web Page, and soon on their AGI Community Page.

Evaluation Methods Center

Jay Gribble has been named the co-director of the Evaluation Research Methods Center

Jay Gribble, an expert in monitoring and evaluation, joined Abt Associates in April, 2013 as Senior M&E Strategy and Business Development Lead to oversee the International Health Division’s evaluation practice. Gribble has held key positions with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Constella Futures and Georgetown University Institute for Reproductive Health. At PRB, Gribble directed IDEA, a USAID project funded through the Office of Population and Reproductive Health. Among other assignments, he was the principal investigator for the Hewlett Foundation-supported PopPov research initiative secretariat, which supports and disseminates research on the relationships between reproductive health, population dynamics, and economic growth. Gribble is the author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals related to family planning issues, including strategic introduction of contraceptives; family planning policies and their impacts on the poor; and creating options for the private sector in family planning.

Gribble holds a MPH from the University of Buenos Aires, as well as an MSc in Population Sciences and a ScD in Demography from Harvard University.

More information is available on the Evaluation Methods Center Web Page, and soon on their AGI Community Page.

The Methods Centers are cross-company consortiums open to all Abt, Abt SRBI and Abt JTA researchers who are interested in specific methodologies.  To facilitate collaboration between  our survey researchers across our entire company the Methods Centers serve as resources to:

1.       Supply advice and tools (boilerplate) to ensure methodological parts of proposals reflect state of the art practices and highlight our expertise.

2.       Connect projects with methods expertise to assure the strongest design and execution of methodological project work.

3.       Develop our colleagues’ understanding and application of the best practices in methods research techniques.

4.       Discuss current practices, new methodological  ideas and technical innovations.