The Evaluation Group - Staff
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The Evaluation Group at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) is staffed by two full-time evaluators. Because of our disability-focused mission, we offer content expertise as well as evaluation expertise to programs that serve people with disabilities and other special needs.
Mary A. McEathron, Ph.D., received her doctorate in evaluation studies at the University of Minnesota and has extensive training and experience in evaluation design and methods. Her research interests focus on evaluation use and evaluation’s role in bridging academic and applied worlds. During the past three years at the Institute on Community Integration, Dr. McEathron has worked on a number of evaluations and research projects at the program, state, and federal levels. Examples of these projects include a study on the impact of SSI redetermination of 18-year-old youth with disabilities, a pilot study of the Minnesota Postschool Follow-Up System, and an implementation study of the Reintegration Framework Strategic Planning Toolkit.
Karen Evans Stout, Ph.D., received her doctorate in educational policy and administration (policy studies) from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include policy and its implications for school practice, school lunch, educational leadership development, and systems evaluations. Dr. Stout was co-PI on a large-scale leadership development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education with Lehigh University and the Philadelphia Public Schools and a similar project for the DeWitt Wallace Foundation. She has worked extensively on evaluation projects for school districts, particularly with the Allentown School District on system-wide evaluation and other projects.
Associate Consultants
In addition to our core staff, we draw on our associate consultants to meet the needs of our clients.
Angela Novak Amado, Ph.D., has an extensive background in developmental disabilities, including local and state evaluation, direct support, agency administration, state government, and nationwide research. She also has an extensive background in evaluation, including both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods. Dr. Amado has evaluated county and state case management systems, state services for a court-appointed deinstitutionalization monitor, housing voucher programs, and services for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Trisha Beuhring, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Southern California. She has extensive experience in program development, measurement design and validation, and theory-relevant evaluation at the local, state, and national levels. Dr. Beuhring has spent the past six years forming University-community partnerships that ground intervention practices in theory and research. Her research interests include early-onset delinquency, risk and resilience, and translating research into practice.
Chris Bremer, Ph.D., works on research and evaluation efforts focused on transition-age youth. She has also been a researcher at the University of Minnesota's National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. At ICI, she has led a case study of a technical college's efforts to improve enrollment and retention of at-risk students, and co-led a national survey and case studies on VR services for transition-age youth. Dr. Bremer has authored and co-authored a number of publications on dropout/graduation, assessment, and other topics; has served as a Federally-designated external reviewer of states' Annual Performance Reports; and has expertise in survey and case study methodologies.
Amy Hewitt, Ph.D., has extensive experience in the field of developmental disabilities and has worked in various positions in the field over the past 20 years, including as a residential Program Director and Director of Training. At ICI, she directs several federal and state research, evaluation, and demonstration projects in the area of direct support staff workforce development and community services for people with disabilities. Dr. Hewitt is a national leader in the area of workforce development and community supports to individuals with developmental disabilities.
David R. Johnson, Ph.D., is Associate Dean for Research, Birkmaier Professor of Educational Leadership, and Director of ICI. He is also Principal Investigator of several research, training, and demonstration projects focused on secondary education and transition services. His research interests include postschool outcomes, dropout/school completion, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, and other policy-related research. His research and evaluation study results have been used by U.S. Congressional committees, state legislatures, state education agencies, and other organizations.
Sheryl A. Larson, Ph.D., has more than 20 years of experience in services to persons with ID/DD, including work as a residential counselor, behavior analyst, program evaluator, consultant, personal advocate, and researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. At ICI, she directs projects involving evaluation, quantitative analysis, survey research, secondary analysis of large datasets and research synthesis on residential services, personnel issues, disability statistics and community integration for persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities.