Regional Evaluator Directory
| Evaluator: | Mika Cohen Jones, MS |
| Expertise Description: | Ms. Jones has extensive experience in audience research and evaluation, as well as program development. She has worked with a broad range of institutions, including public school districts, children's museums, science centers, art museums, and national parks. Her focus areas include the role that culture plays in learning, understanding and fostering communities of learners, as well as engaging non-traditional audiences. Mika specializes in providing "just-in-time" feedback to improve exhibit or programmatic impacts, and embeds the richness of innovative qualitative approaches within her research and evaluation. She has taught university courses in Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has a Master’s degree in Ecology and Anthropology from the University of California, Davis, and uses her interdisciplinary background to reframe issues of public impact and engagement. Mika also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the El Paso Holocaust Museum. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 803-9490 Email: mcohenjones@gamil.com |
| Department/Center: |
| Evaluator: | Joao Ferreira-Pinto, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | Dr. Ferreira-Pinto has been conducting health-related research and evaluations for local, state, national, and international government agencies and non-profit organizations for the past 25 years. During that time, he has been involved as a Principal, co- Principal Investigator, and Evaluator in a number of State and Federal grants, and as a consultant evaluator for national and international health agencies. As Director of Research for the College of Health Sciences (CHS) he has used his experience and expertise to assist CHS faculty in the design of research and evaluation plans for grant submission, and to support the implementation and monitoring of funded research. Moreover, as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Research and Evaluation (CIHRE), Dr. Ferreira-Pinto has access to the expertise of researchers in health related disciplines in areas ranging from clinical Rehabilitation Sciences to Public Health Sciences. This access has allowed CIHRE to conduct evaluations in areas ranging from client satisfaction with transportation services, public perception of law-enforcement, and prevention and treatment health programs including substance abuse, HIV and other transmissible diseases. During his graduate career, Dr. Ferreira-Pinto was trained in mixed methods research methodologies and in the past has employed established quantitative research methodologies such as surveys, and has also used other techniques such as Delphi surveys, multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering and network analysis. Lately he has been engaged by organizations in a number of evaluation projects using qualitative research methodologies, such as focus groups and individual interviews to collect original data, and to validate and further explore survey-based research outcomes. He has also been exploring the use of media-based quantitative and qualitative research for data collection and analysis. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 747-7295 Email: joao@utep.edu |
| Department/Center: | Health Sciences-CIHRE |
| Evaluator: | Elaine M. Hampton, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | Elaine M. Hampton, Ph.D., has a long career as an educator and educational researcher with experiences on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. She is retired Associate Professor and Department Chair of Teacher Education at the University of Texas at El Paso where she taught educational research, curriculum theory, and science methods. She has written four books, five chapters in scholarly books, and is first author of sixteen peer reviewed journal articles. Dr. Hampton was a fellow at the NSF evaluation training at Western Michigan University, and has evaluated education-related grants such as: NSF research on Gender in Engineering Education; U.S. Department of Education project to improve Environmental Sciences curriculum at UTEP; W.K. Kellogg’s funded Success Partnership to improve education in Doña Ana County; and various NSF funded programs for STEM education and teaching at UTEP and NMSU. She specializes in qualitative evaluation methodologies. Her research in education in Mexico resulted in the book with Anay Palomeque Carillo. (2013). Anay’s Will to Learn: A Woman’s Education in the Shadow of the Maquiladora – the eight-year ethnographic study of a maquiladora worker’s struggle through factory labor conditions, poverty, and violence to achieve her education. She edited a book that serves as a toolkit for teacher researchers, Researching for mutual understanding in diverse communities. Her research about the impact of high-stakes testing in Latino communities is published in Angela Valenzuela’s Leaving Children Behind: Why Texas-Style Accountability Fails Latino Youth. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 373-3672 Email: elainemhampton@gmail.com |
| Department/Center: | STEM Education Associates |
| Evaluator: | Lizely Madrigal-Gonzalez, EDD |
| Expertise Description: | Dr. Lizely Madrigal-Gonzalez has an academic background and work experience in evaluation design, qualitative and quantitative methods, including descriptive and analytical statistics, educational research, policy analysis, student information systems, and data-driven decision making. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership with a specialization in Policy, Evaluation, and Technology. She also holds two Master’s Degrees, one in Sociology with a concentration in Research Methods and the other in Public Administration. Dr. Madrigal-Gonzalez is currently the Strategic Performance Manager for the County of El Paso, where she oversees the County-wide performance management system. She was most recently the Senior Program Evaluator at UTEP’s Research, Evaluation, and Assessment unit under the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, where she led the evaluation of multiple federally funded multimillion dollar projects. She continues to serve the UTEP community as a lecturer for the Chicano Studies Department. Dr. Madrigal’s previous professional experiences also include working for the Ysleta Independent School District, the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the El Paso Empowerment Zone Corporation. Dr. Madrigal-Gonzalez has also served as an external program evaluator for the Workforce Solutions Borderplex. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 356-6200 Email: lmadrigal@utep.edu |
| Department/Center: | Chicano Studies |
| Evaluator: | Thenral Mangadu, PhD, MPH |
| Expertise Description: | Dr. Mangadu has over 15 years of experience as an internal and external evaluator in designing and implementing community-based public health program evaluation and research addressing health disparities in US-Mexico border communities. She has evaluated public health programs focusing on topics including HIV prevention, Substance Abuse Prevention, Obesity and Diabetes prevention, Environmental Health and Home Safety, Women’s Health, Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention, Global/Minority Health Disparities, School Health, Healthy Eating and Active Living and, Organizational Assessment. In addition, Dr.Mangadu has extensive experience in conducting assessment of student success in higher education and, curriculum evaluation. She designs and conducts process and outcome evaluations including logic model design, needs assessments, Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis, community mapping, fidelity and collective impact assessments. She is experienced in conducting interdisciplinary program evaluation research using mixed data collection methods (qualitative and quantitative) and, in utilizing strategies including Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), Photovoice, and Social Marketing (Mobile Health Technology, eHealth etc.) as required to conduct practically meaningful program evaluations. Dr.Mangadu has evaluated projects funded by local, institutional (universities), state, federal and international organizations including the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, El Paso, TX, U.S. Health Resources Services Administration, U.S. Office of Women’s Health, Pan American Health Organization, and the NCMHD. She is currently the Principal Investigator/co-Principal Investigator of public health programs funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Paso Del Norte Health Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Justice. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 747-8615 Email: tdmangadu@utep.edu |
| Department/Center: | Health Sciences |
| Evaluator: | Robert D. McCreary, MA, MS |
| Expertise Description: | Robert, the founder of Demoscopic Analytics, is a data enthusiast and researcher who believes in the power of data to drive meaningful insights and empower decision-making. Demoscopic Analytics is a research and data analytics firm that provides businesses and organizations with comprehensive insights and solutions through the integration of rigorous research, traditional analysis methods, and cutting-edge data science techniques. Demoscopic Analytics has a team of data scientists, researchers, and analysts who are committed to delivering high-quality, ethical solutions to their clients. The company has expanded from western Texas to serve clients across the United States and internationally. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 201-0599 Website: demoscopicanalytics.com/contact-us |
| Evaluator: | Jonathan L. Meyer, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | Jonathan L. Meyer, Ph.D. is the owner of JLM Research and Evaluation and has extensive experience in designing and implementing program evaluation models both domestically and internationally. Dr. Meyer primarily uses an empowerment evaluation approach for organizations that serve vulnerable women, children, families, and refugees. Dr. Meyer has worked with such organizations in Romania as well as for the federal government for the Republic of Moldova with the primary goal of designing a model of supervision for 1,000 newly hired government social workers. Within the borders of the US, Dr. Meyer has worked with a variety of programs such as several federally funded programs serving U.S./Mexico border populations, in particular women and children living in unincorporated, poverty-stricken areas of the border called colonias as well as populations found in urban centers in San Antonio and Houston, Texas. He also currently works with organizations addressing breast cancer and with NASA funded STEM education programs. Dr. Meyer is currently the President of the Texas Evaluation Network. Dr. Meyer’s most recent training presentations have occurred at the local, state and national levels and have focused on issues related to program evaluation, resiliency and the strengthening of social determinants to maternal and child health. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (210) 454-3817 Email: jonathanmeyer278@gmail.com |
| Department/Center: | JLM Research and Evaluation |
| Evaluator: | Arturo Olivarez, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | For the last 23 years Dr. Olivarez has been involved in conducting program evaluations for school districts, private entities, universities, state, and federal external grants. The large majority of these evaluations have focused on evaluation of bilingual education, engineering programs such as green energy manufacturing and leadership, mathematics, nursing training programs, science, reading, professional development of teachers, technology enhancement and integration, and Twenty-First Century after school grants. He has assisted in the design of research plans, data collection and statistical analyses. Oversees the application or implementation of evaluation plans, surveys, subject matter tests, and personality scales when new instrumentation is required to assess participants profiles and input about quality of services receive and overall program effectiveness. His primary focus is on the use of quantitative approaches to evaluation of program effectiveness but have experience in the use of qualitative techniques for data collection and analysis such as observational techniques, focus group, and individual interviewing. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 747-5579 Fax: (915) 747-7441 Email: aolivarez3@utep.edu |
| Department/Center: | Education - REL Evaluation Support Services |
| Evaluator: | Natalia Strobach Oronoz, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | Dr. Strobach Oronoz serves as an evaluator for the El Paso Independent School district. She oversees programs ranging from curriculum development to top-dollar initiatives. Her expertise is in quantitative methodology. She holds a graduate certificate in quantitative methodology in topics ranging from research design to complex statistical analyses. Her doctoral degree is in experimental psychology with an emphasis on bilingualism. Dr. Strobach Oronoz has created and validated survey instruments and has been working on developing mixed-model designs to deal with the complexity and range of data available to educational agencies while maximizing the use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 491-6645 Email: strobach7@gmail.com |
| Department/Center: | El Paso Independent School District - Equity, Analytics, Strategy, Assessment & PEIMS (eASAP) |
| Evaluator: | Rodolfo Rincones, PhD |
| Expertise Description: | For the last 26 years Dr. Rodolfo Rincones has been involved in conducting research and program evaluations for school districts and universities. He has evaluated state and federally funded programs and at the K-12 level, has evaluated bilingual education programs, compensatory education programs for at-risk students, dyslexia programs, STEM focused programs, computer-assisted instructional programs, ubiquitous computing and after-school programs. He has also evaluated policy implementation and school reform initiatives such as reconstitution of schools, redrawing of school boundary zones and early college high schools. Since 2005, Dr. Rincones has been evaluating GEAR UP Programs for college readiness and transition from K-12 to higher education. In higher education, he has experience evaluating teacher preparation programs such as the UTEACH, T-STEM, the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degrees in Mathematics and Science, Dual Master Degree in engineering and study broad programs. At community college level, he has evaluated the RISE and DHS Bridge programs. In these evaluations he has planned, developed and implemented the evaluation plans which involved evaluation and research design, identification of program effectiveness indicators and identification or development of data collection instruments such as questionnaires, tests, protocols for individual or group interviews or focus groups. Dr. Rodolfo Rincones is well versed in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, data collection techniques and different methods for data reporting and visualization. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 747-7614 Fax: (915) 747-5838 Email: rrincones@utep.edu |
| Department/Center: | Education |
| Evaluator: | Christopher C. Villa, MBA, MPA |
| Expertise Description: | Helix Solutions was established in May 2007 to provide evaluation service to educational projects in the private and public sector in Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico. The founding members recognized that this region lacked sufficient capacity for program evaluation services to meet the needs of the community, and, as a result, Helix Solutions was formed. As the principal consultant of Helix Solutions, Christopher Villa has taken the lead in the evaluation projects undertaken over the last eight years. He has recently evaluated and currently evaluates projects with Center Against Family Violence, Child Crisis Center of El Paso, City of El Paso, Creative Kids, Inc., New Mexico State University (NMSU), Project Vida Health Center, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Ysleta Independent School District. His research experience includes needs assessment, survey instrument design, development of data collection strategy, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, development of databases to track participant progress and participation, development of Institution Review Board (IRB) documentation, and delivery of comprehensive reports using advanced graphics. The methods used for evaluation have ranged from quantitative and qualitative analyses using a variety of research methods, such as pretest-posttest research designs, posttest only designs (non-experiment), interviews, and focus groups. For example, during the summers of 2008 - 2015, his firm conducted external evaluation for the Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) at UTEP. The evaluation focused on 1) the student’s satisfaction with the various components of the MHIRT experience; and 2) the outcomes of the program with respect to its ability to encourage students to pursue careers in Hispanic health disparities research. They gathered self-reported data through a series of survey instruments implemented at certain key milestones. Their evaluation findings and recommendations have led to programmatic changes, which has improved the program’s implementation and participant overall satisfaction. Mr. Villa’s graduate work in public and business administration included coursework in evaluation and research methods providing him with the academic preparation for evaluation work and he successfully launch Helix Solutions. The firm has been contracted as external evaluators for grants funded by the following agencies: National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and additionally private foundations. |
| Contact Information: |
Phone: (915) 526-2042 Email: christopher.villa@gmail.com |
| Department/Center: |
