Dr. Jennifer Himmelstein has facilitated learning for evidence-based decision-making in market and food-systems change programs for over 15 years. For over a decade she has overseen a team of researchers to ensure the quality of client monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems and deliverables-supporting MEL staff in >28 projects at a time. Her Ph.D. in plant science lays the foundation for applied research design and collaborative outreach. She has worked for four different government agencies (USDA, FERC, EPA & USAID), as well as the private and non-profit sector. Jennifer was also Faculty & Assistant Director of Virginia Tech’s USAID funded Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (SANREM) Innovation Lab. She is an expert in systems change assessment including methods like social network analysis, outcome harvest, Most Significant Change measurement and more.
Elena Paredes has fifteen years of experience designing and implementing data collection, management, and utilization systems to help organizations understand their impact and make informed strategic decisions. Elena is also a seasoned evaluator, having led over 20 evaluations throughout her career. She is a strong proponent of participatory evaluation methods that actively engage participants in the creation and analysis of data through individual and group exercises. She is trained as an educator, and regularly uses her facilitation and capacity-building skills to strengthen organizations’ capacities to capture and utilize data. Elena believes organizational learning must be a central objective of data systems and is seasoned in the development of tools and frameworks that can help synthesize learning from data into actionable efforts. Elena has worked with entities in over 25 countries in the United States, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe. Elena has set up data infrastructure systems for election commissions, multinational organizations, foundations, and local-level non-governmental organizations. She holds a master’s degree in education from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s degree in international development from Georgetown University.
Aligning Data for Action 