Search

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. 

Cristofer Price’s ability to clearly communicate complex design and analysis issues related to evaluation topics is highly sought after. An expert in behavioral and educational research, Price applies his talents in study design and the formulation of statistical models of longitudinal and clustered data for continuous and discrete outcomes to a variety of complex challenges.

MIchelle Wood has more than 30 years of experience managing large-scale national program evaluations and applied social science research. She has managed several national random assignment studies.Wood is the project director for the Social Security Administration’s Benefit Offset National Demonstration Project. She manages a large team, including subcontractors and consultants, to implement and evaluate a $1-for-$2 benefit offset for the Social Security Disability Insurance program. The project scope of work includes designing and executing large-scale participant outreach and recruitment, implementing secure data systems, managing complex data collection, designing a communications strategy, operating a call center, providing training and technical assistance to local agencies, and documenting the results in process, participation, net impact and cost-benefit analyses. 

Dr. Gabriella Newes-Adeyi has more than 25 years of experience managing and implementing public health research projects that focus on disease epidemiology and surveillance, research-to-practice strategies, and health behavior change. A skilled manager, she has directed multiple large, complex multisite research projects. As a principal associate and client account lead for infectious diseases in Abt’s public health portfolio, Dr. Newes-Adeyi leverages all Abt’s capabilities to deliver solutions that match client priorities. She leads growth of new infectious disease work and ensures high-quality delivery of existing contracts.

Alan White is a nationally renowned health economist, highly respected for his rapid response to clients’ complex information and research needs with data-driven, creative solutions. As the senior health economist for the Health Policy Practice, he leads high-profile projects and guides the practice’s health economists.

Judith A. Alamprese has more than 35 years of experience directing research, evaluation and technical assistance projects in adult education and workforce development. Trained as a sociologist, she has focused on system and individual-level interventions to promote the social and economic well-being of low-skilled adults and at-risk youth. For 18 years she has led the division’s adult learning practice, where her work has ranged from leading rigorous evaluations of innovative practices in basic skills instruction to designing state-systemic change initiatives in career pathways.

David Judkins has 35 years of experience as a statistician supporting survey research, evaluation methodology and the evaluation of large-scale social interventions. Since joining Abt in 2012, he serves as a senior scientist consulting across the division on a variety of small and large evaluations covering topics that range from questionnaire design to analytic strategies.Judkins has recently focused his career on the evaluation of social interventions, particularly in the fields of adult job training, education, prosocial mass-media campaigns and child welfare.   

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.

Jason Brinkley, Ph.D., is a biostatistician, data scientist and health researcher who leads the Research Design and Analytics team in Abt’s Data Science, Surveys and Enabling Technologies division. Brinkley has expertise in a wide range of analytic methods, and he specializes in machine learning, customized data visualizations, maps and dash-boarding. Brinkley balances research time between examining theoretical ways to assess the impact of medical interventions on public health and developing best practices for using statistical software. A member of the American Statistical Association, AcademyHealth, and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, he also serves on the executive board of the Southeast SAS Users Group.

Dr. Michael Plotzke is a senior health economist with expertise in the area of Medicare payment policy, the organization of healthcare providers and quality measurement. His work typically involves the analysis of large datasets such as Medicare claims, assessment and enrollment data. Dr. Plotzke serves as principal investigator for multiple projects with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  On the “Home Health Prospective Payment System and Hospice: Analysis Support and Monitoring” project, Dr. Plotzke leads a team of researchers in analyzing trends in Medicare hospice and home health usage and constructing large-scale payment reform options for both benefits.  Dr. Plotzke also leads the “Evaluation of the Medicare Care Choices Model” project that evaluates a new payment model for end-of-life care that is being tested with 141 hospice providers.  This project involves analysis of existing administrative data and collection of new data through surveys of caregivers, surveys of hospice providers and in-depth case studies of hospice providers participating in the model.