Z. Joan Wang, Ph.D., Founder and President

Dr. Wang has 20 years of experience in the areas of survey methodology, attitude-behavior research, and program evaluation regarding education, public health, and social services. She has special expertise in evaluation design and implementation, survey design and implementation, sampling design, statistical modeling, data analysis, psychometric testing, report writing, and management of large databases. She is currently serving as Project Director on the 2011-2014 Annual Survey of Refugees for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Evaluation of Veterans Transition Assistance Programs for the U.S. Department of Labor. She has recently directed the Survey of 2010 LUCA Program Participants for the U.S. Bureau of Census, a technical assistance project for the evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Young Parents Demonstration (YPD) Program, and a two-phase study to examine the U.S. Department of State’s global exchange alumni coordination effort. Dr. Wang has served as Project Director and/or Senior Statistician on over 30 additional survey research and data analysis projects. These include, but are not limited to, the Consumer Expenditure Records Study, the 2009 and 2011 Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), two global online surveys of U.S. exchange alumni coordinators and alumni association leaders, the 2002, 2004, and 2006 Maryland Cancer Screening (MCS) surveys, the 2006-2010 Annual Survey of Refugees, the National Follow-up Survey of Veterans’ Health Care Services, the National Surveys of Veteran Entrepreneurs and Service-Disabled Veteran Entrepreneurs, the National Survey of Medicare Beneficiaries, the National Survey of Opioid Treatment Program Participants, the 2002-2010 Annual Surveys of Refugees, the National Survey of NSF Principal Investigators, the National Customer Satisfaction Survey for the National Endowment for Humanities, the Customer Satisfaction Survey of Maryland Mental Health Care Services Recipients, the Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Survey (MHICS), the National Survey of Women’s Sexual Health, the Maryland Survey of Small Businesses, the Maryland Lottery Tracking Survey, the North Carolina WIA Customer Service Satisfaction Survey, the Housing Survey of Montgomery County Residents, the FEMA Customer Service Survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of the Montgomery County Public Schools, the Survey of Maryland Public School Principals, the Survey of Parents of Students in Baltimore City Public Schools, and the National Survey of School Library Media Centers. She also served as an expert survey methodologist/statistician on class lawsuits and other litigation cases.

In addition, Dr. Wang has served as Project Director and/or Senior Analyst on over a dozen other program evaluation projects including the Evaluation of Residential Resources in Maryland for Children with Special Needs, the Evaluation of the Maryland Substance Abuse Services Demonstration Project (Title IV Waiver), the Evaluation of the Maryland Child Support Enforcement Privatization and Demonstration Pilot Programs, the Evaluation of the Impact of Teachers’ Professional Development, the Evaluation of the Maryland Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), the Evaluation of the “Communities Choosing” Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program in San Francisco, the Evaluation of the Effect of Increased State Aid to Maryland Local School Systems through the Bridge To Excellence Act, the 2001 Evaluation of the Baltimore City Public Schools, the Evaluation of the impact of Opioid Treatment Program Accreditation, and the Evaluation of the Education and Training for Employment in Morocco. She also served as Senior Analyst on a multi-year project to establish the National Evaluation Data and Technical Assistance Center (NEDTAC) for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). She developed the initial design of the CSAT Client-Level Minimum Evaluation Data Set (MEDS) to guide CSAT grantees in their program evaluation effort. She managed the Multi-Project Analysis (MPA) projects for several CSAT programs and participated in designing the Cross-Site Evaluation for CSAT programs. Dr. Wang was invited as an expert consultant by the Office of Inspector General in the U.S. Department of State to review the research methodology of one of their media impact projects, assess the validity of the study results, and provide technical advice on the research design and analytical approach. Dr. Wang holds a Master’s degree in journalism studies from the University of Wales at Cardiff, U.K. and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Anthony (AJ) Ernst, Ph.D., Project Director/Senior Analyst 
Dr. Ernst brings more than 25 years of experience in the field of substance abuse and mental health prevention and treatment as a clinician, academician, and project director. Throughout his career, he has led strategic planning, product development, policy development, training initiatives, and overall systems change strategies across mental health and substance abuse service delivery systems to promote collaboration and build service capacities in the delivery of services to diverse populations. Currently, Dr. Ernst serves as Project Director for SAMHSA’s Native American Center for Excellence at Avar Consulting, Inc., leading knowledge dissemination on community needs assessments, program evaluation and monitoring, practice- and evidence-based interventions, services integration, and revenue development to Native American programs throughout the US. As past Director of technology transfer at CDM Group for SAMHSA’s Co-occurring Center for Excellence, Dr. Ernst led teams including state and community based organizations, national advisory council members, and diverse stakeholder groups to address issues related to co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. While State Manager at state mental health and substance abuse agencies, Dr. Ernst served as the liaison for cross-sector collaboration between department stakeholders, local providers, advocacy groups, and local initiatives to standardize work force competencies and performance measures. Dr. Ernst is also the primary author of State administrative codes that ensure uniformity of clinical standards across state mental health and substance abuse service delivery systems. Dr. Ernst earned a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Texas. 

Albert C. E. Parker, Ph.D., Senior Survey Methodologist/Analyst
Dr. Parker has over 25 years of experience as a survey research designer, manager, and analyst. He has directed sample survey data collection in all major modes, including personal interviews, mail, telephone, the Internet, and records abstraction. He recently served as a Senior Analyst on the Survey of LUCA Program Participants for the U.S. Census Bureau, taking a lead in its questionnaire design, data analysis plan, and development of the final study report. He managed two iterations of a customer satisfaction survey for the National Center for Education Statistics that included drawing samples from multiple frames, telephone screening of sample segments to establish eligibility and identify respondents, multiple modes for recruitment (e-mail and postal mail) and data collection modes (paper with key entry, Web, and telephone follow-up), unduplication and weighting, and reports that included longitudinal comparison of key indicators and comparison of satisfaction ratings across subpopulations. He has conducted research on threats to individual confidentiality in individual data files and on for preserving confidentiality while making data available to researchers. He analyzed the cost effects of alternative formats and follow-up methodologies for the 2000 Decennial Census household long and short forms, and evaluated the early implications of emerging technologies for the 2010 Decennial Census. He provided technical direction for research on imputation of missing and erroneous data in a large institutional census (public schools and school districts). Dr. Parker Received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Washington University at St. Louis.

James Dotson, Ph.D., Senior Public Health Analyst
Dr. Dotson has over 25 years of experience in health promotion and disease/injury prevention. As a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), he has extensive experience working with organizations to plan, implement and evaluate public health activities. He has been involved with a diverse range of health topics, among them substance use and abuse, obesity, physical activity and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and other health areas.He has collaborated with clients to assess health issues and problems, and identify or develop effective strategies (programs, policies, and/or practices) to address those health concerns. He has supported initiatives and activities for a wide range of federal government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and has presented on behalf of these agencies at professional meetings. Dr. Dotson has more than 20 years of experience in federal government contracting, serving as a Corporate Monitor, Project Direction/Principal Investigator, and/or Team/Task Leader on numerous projects, including multiyear/multimillion dollar contracts and task orders. He holds a B.A. degree in Biology from Washington Adventist University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Health Education from the University of Maryland at College Park. His doctoral dissertation was titled: “Physician-Delivered Smoking Cessation Interventions: An Information Synthesis of the Literature.”

Bethanie X. Wang, Ph.D., Research Associate
Dr. Wang has 8 years of experience has 8 years of experience in the areas of education, child development, family science, and substance abuse prevention. Her expertise encompasses program design and evaluation, quantitative and qualitative analyses, survey methodology, data management and quality control, and scientific writing. She served as a Research Analyst on the 2009 and 2011 Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS), the 2009-11 Annual Survey of Refugees, and the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of LUCA Program Participants, analyzing survey data and writing study reports. Using NCES’s Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) dataset, she conducted her dissertation research on the predictors of the academic achievement and socio-emotional development of Asian American children. She participated in over a dozen studies on adolescent mental health, early childhood education and child care policy, Head Start, and effects of parental involvement on children’s school education. She has provided technical assistance to the Department of Labor's evaluation of their Young Parent Demonstration Program, managed the content of a comprehensive website for the Native American Center for Excellence funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and is currently serving as a mid-level analyst on a national survey of state and local government agencies for the Bureau of Census. Dr. Wang is highly proficient in SPSS, Microsoft Excel, and MicroSoft Power Point, and has received training certificates on Data Confidentiality from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Data Stewardship Awareness from the Bureau of Census. She holds a Master’s degree in Education from Beijing Normal University, and a Ph.D. in Family Science from the School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park.

Ariel C. Lin, Ph.D., Research Associate
Dr. Lin has 5 years of teaching experience and 8 years of research experience in the field of education, including L1/L2 reading comprehension, motivation, digital learning, language learning strategies, and creativity. She has solid training in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and is proficient in SPSS. Dr. Lin recently managed three expert panel meetings for the National Center for Education Statistics, analyzed data collected from these panel discussions, and prepared two comparison study papers between the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and between NAEP and the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). She is currently serving as a research analyst on the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Statistics Support Institute Network (ESSIN). Dr. Lin received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and a certificate in Measurements, Statistics, and Evaluation both from the University of Maryland at College Park. She has presented 14 papers on the topics of reading comprehension and educational assessments in international conferences, and has several journal papers under review or in preparation.

Joy X. Wang, Ph.D., Research Associate
Dr. Wang has five years of experiences in statistics and intensive research in consumer behavior analysis using statistical methodology and econometric modeling. She has analyzed data for the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of the 2010 LUCA Program Participants and the Annual Survey of Refugee funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). She is currently serving as a research analyst on the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Statistics Support Institute Network (ESSIN). For her dissertation research, she developed econometric models to simulate consumer behavior toward beef products under food risks and conducted advanced analysis of large national databases using SAS and STATA. She is proficient in both SPSS and SAS. She received both her Master's degree and Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Kentucky.

Gloria T. Yim, M.A., Research Associate
Ms. Yim has recently completed her Master’s degree with a focus on welfare policy. Throughout her academic studies she has strived to improve her understanding of survey methodology and quantitative analysis. In her undergraduate program, she became a mentor to graduating seniors looking for expertise in SPSS. Throughout her graduate program, she continued to be a mentor to her cohort when it came to the understanding of SAS. As a Research Aide in the project Momento Crucial by ASU’s College of Nursing, she managed the quantitative database in a mix-methods longitudinal study. She is currently serving as a research analyst on the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Statistics Support Institute Network (ESSIN). Ms. Yim received her M.A. in Sociology from the Arizona State University, Tempe.

Chayun Yi, M.P.P., Research Associate
Ms. Yi has research and analysis experience in different public policy areas, including education, national security, housing, immigration, and health. She is proficient in SPSS and has solid training in quantitative, qualitative, and survey methodology. She is currently serving as a research analyst on the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Statistics Support Institute Network (ESSIN). She also has experience in survey data collection and has taught social science for high school students for over seven years. Ms. Yi received her Master's degree in Policy Analysis from George Mason University, Virginia.

Max W. Li, B.S., Survey Supervisor
Mr. Li has two years of experience in the areas of optimization, statistical analysis and survey management. He has conducted research on healthcare optimization using operations research concepts including queuing theory and probabilistic and statistical modeling. He has been managing the field operations for the Office of Refugees and Resettlement’s (ORR) Annual Survey for Refugees (ASR). Mr. Li is well versed in data security methods and managing the flow of sensitive information. He is also proficient in various analytical, engineering and simulation software including Excel (ANOVA), SPSS, Minitab, Matlab and ProModel. He received his B.S. in Systems Engineering and Finance from Washington University, St. Louis.

Gregory Dwyer, B.A., Research Assistant
Mr. Dwyer graduated Cum Laude from the University of Delaware in Newark with an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History, where during his time, became a Blue Hen Ambassador where he promoted the university to prospective students and their families, through tours and assisted the admissions office through many recruitment programs. While there, he also implemented a public opinion survey to over 2,000 undergraduate students as the Team Leader in Survey Design and Methodology. Mr. Dwyer further extended his experience into other arenas, as he became an interviewer for the Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research, a Resident Advisor/Mentor for the Middle Eastern Partnership Initiative, as well as a Constitutional Law Researcher at the university. Mr. Dwyer is highly skilled in such programs as Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access, etc., and proficient in software such as SPSS and Qualtrics.

Wayne Ni, M.S., Data Manager/SPSS Programmer
Mr. Ni has over 8 years of experience in the areas of data management and IT development. He has special expertise in data import/export, cleaning, validation, manipulation, mapping, modeling, quantitative analysis, pattern analysis, reporting, system analysis, workflow/process design, application development, and DBA. He has served as Data Manager, SAS analyst, SPSS programmer, Modeler, Developer, DBA, Business Analyst, Project Manager, and System Architect on multiple projects for government, private sector, and non-profit organizations. He managed data for survey analysis and program evaluation, identified patterns and trends in large database, developed mission critical financial system, and implemented applications on enterprise level. Mr. Wayne Ni is proficient in technologies including SAS 9.1, SPSS 19, SQL Server 2005, ASP.Net, Oracle 10g, and has deep understanding in all phases of Software Development Life Cycle, and development methodologies (Waterfall and Agile). Mr. Wayne Ni holds a Master of Science in Information Management specialized in Information Security from Syracuse University.

Kevin Ji, B.S., IT Specialist
Mr. Ji has over five years of experience in computer sciences and IT technology. From fixing computer chips to securing corporate networks, from programming modules to implementing enterprise solutions, Mr. Ji has a wide spectrum experience working with a variety of clients/customers. He worked for various departments within Siemens Medical Solutions around the enterprise system Soarian for two years. Kevin has recently completed a number of projects that involve IT development and support, including development of a national online inventory of healthcare services datasets/databases for the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ), two web-based global surveys for the U.S. Department of State, and a web-based random assignment and monitoring system for the evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Young Parents Demonstration Program. He was responsible for restructuring and optimizing the backend database, building the front end interactive web portal, designing and developing the IT structure for web surveys, programming survey questionnaires, managing the day-to-day survey operations, and processing survey data. Mr. Ji holds a B.S. in Information Systems from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

James A. Swartz, Ph.D., Public Health Specialist (Substance Abuse Treatment & Prevention)
Dr. Swartz has 20 years of experience in mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention research, which has resulted in over 30 peer reviewed publications, eight books and book chapters, over 20 study reports, and numerous presentations. His research topics include screening for serious mental illness in populations with co-occurring substance use disorders; the mediating effects of substance use between serious mental illness and arrest; substance abuse treatment and prevention for women; substance abuse treatment in the criminal justice system; and the impact of welfare policy on substance abuse. Dr. Swartz has served as a reviewer for a number of professional journals such as International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, Contemporary Drug Problems, Substance Use and Misuse, American Journal of Public Health, Women & Criminal Justice, Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. He also served as a grant reviewer for the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Substance Abuse Policy Research Program. Dr. Swartz holds a Master’s degree in behavioral research from Loyola University at Chicago, Illinois, and a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from Northwestern University Medical School. He is currently an Associate Professor at Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Suzanne Bowler, Ph.D., Health Policy Analyst
Dr. Bowler has 20 years of experience in designing, conducting, and managing single- and multi-site public health research and evaluation projects for Federal and State Government clients including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) and Treatment (CSAT), SAMHSA, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Specific skills include process and outcome evaluation design, evaluation training, survey research, qualitative and quantitative data collection including site visits and in-person interviewing, focus group facilitation, case study research and analysis, content analysis of primary and secondary data, cross-site data analysis, and data management. She has also written technical reports and publications including Federal monographs and peer-reviewed journal articles, and technical and grant proposals for a variety of Federal initiatives. Dr. Bowler holds an M.A. and Ph.D. both in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Sukari Ivester, Ph.D., Social Epidemiologist
Trained as a social epidemiologist, Dr. Ivester’s general research interests are in the social and structural determinants of health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations. Her research experience includes several evaluations in the areas of Maternal/Child Health and Substance Abuse Prevention funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 1997. Dr. Ivester is a Research Fellow at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley as well as an Adjunct Professor of Medical Sociology at the California State University, East Bay. She is currently leading an evaluation for the State of California of the Mental Health Service Act (MHSA), a $350 Million effort to transform Mental Health Services in the state. In addition to a qualitative analysis of the Proposition 63/Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Evaluation. she is investigating urban health vulnerabilities from a spatial perspective as related to food access and the built environment. She has also been funded by the National Institutes of Health for both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research. Dr. Sukari Ivester received her BA. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.

L. Dee Torre, Ph.D., Education Specialist (Early Childhood & Special Education)
Dr. L. Dee Torre has more than 30 years of experience in education evaluation and policy analysis, especially in early childhood mental health and behavioral issues, special education, parental involvement and education administration. For eight years, she was a master teacher and administrator for students with disabilities ages 1-7 years. She has also worked extensively as an advocate for interagency collaboration regarding students with intense individual needs. Dr. Torre has served as Project Director and/or Principal Investigator on numerous evaluation or research studies including: a three-year project to evaluate the Judith P. Hoyer Early Care and Education Enhancement program for the Maryland Department of Education; a seven-year longitudinal study that assisted the New York State Education Department in determining the long-term effect of preschool special education programs and services; the evaluation of California’s Child Care Development Block Grants; a comprehensive study for the Florida Commission on Children with Developmental Delays; the Maryland, Arkansas, Georgia, Nevada and South Carolina Reading Excellence Act Program Evaluations; the evaluations of Reading First funding outcomes for K-3 students in New Jersey, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Dr. Torre holds a doctoral degree in Educational Administration and Policy Studies (with a minor in Educational Psychology, Testing, and Measurement) from the State University of New York at Albany. Additionally, she has an M.S. degree in Special Education, with a minor in reading, and is a certified teacher and superintendent. She has recently retired as a senior evaluator and partner in a national firm where conducted statewide and local agency evaluation and planning projects in 12 states and is now pursuing projects of high interest as an independent consultant.

Alberto F. Cabrera, Ph.D., Education Specialist (Higher Education)
Dr. Alberto F. Cabrera is a full professor at the College of Education, the University of Maryland. He has conducted over 20 years of research in college choice, college students, classroom experiences, minorities in Higher Education, and economics of education. He was also a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State University, SUNY-Albany, and Arizona State University-West campus. Dr. Cabrera has served on the National College Access Network’s board of directors as well as in the editorial boards of the top journals in higher education in the USA and Spain (e.g., Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education and Revista Complutense de Educación). He was a member of the advisory board for Pathways to College Network and currently serves on the GEAR UP Evaluation Council of the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP), a 14-member group charged with a mandate to develop a conceptual research framework and data collection design that will be implemented in GEAR UP programs nationally. His work on classroom practices, the role of finances on college persistence and on determinants of default behavior has received several awards. He was the co-leader of the Diversity Institute, a project funded by NSF seeking to create inclusive teaching practices in STEM fields (http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cirtl/diversityinstitute). He was co-principal investigator for the IES grant titled Dream Deferred which provided a most comprehensive review of the impact of GEAR UP on awareness and readiness for college among low-income middle school students. Dr. Cabrera holds a Ph. D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison.

Gina Gu, M.S., Senior Database Specialist
Ms. Gu has over 20 years of comprehensive working experiences in all phases of enterprise business application development process. She has over 10 years of experiences in ORACLE, and 4 years in DB2 database applications as a lead software engineer and application DBA. She has a solid understanding of relational database architecture, with extensive knowledge in database design, modeling and performance turning. She has broad industrial experiences include those in Telecommunication, Finance, Healthcare, Education and Manufacturing environments. She is an energetic, self-motivated, and highly efficient worker, who has worked well with team members in many large projects as well as smaller independent projects.

George Ji, M.B.A., Senior Internet Service Specialist
Mr. Ji has over 10 years of experience in program management and Internet-based development and services, including web-based survey design, programming and hosting, website planning, design, development, hosting and maintenance, web-based database development and data management, as well as online business transactions. He has led/worked on more than 20 internet service projects. Leading a team of IT specialists, Mr. Ji has successfully transferred a large, on-going web survey, including its software applications, survey databases, records, and other associated materials from a Citrix server to Avar’s multi-platform server without interrupting the survey operation. He is currently leading a number of Avar’s web-based projects as follows: 1) hosting and management of the Transforming Church Index survey and producing customized on-line reports; 2) hosting and management of the Performula Assessment, a 360 degree performance review tool for corporate clients; 3) hosting and management of the Healthy Business Index, an on-line organizational assessment tool; 4) design and development of an on-line inventory of healthcare services databases for AHRQ; and 5) providing website, e-mail, and intranet hosting and data archiving services for a number of companies and organizations. Mr. Ji holds a Master's degree in American Studies from Shanghai International Studies University and an M.B.A. from Webster University at St.Louis with an emphasis on technology management.