Past Projects
The projects below represent a range of the research and consulting work I have led and contributed to across community-based organizations, government agencies, advocacy coalitions, and research institutions. Each one reflects a different entry point into the work. Some began with evaluation, some with policy, some with community organizing. All of them share the same core commitment: center the people most impacted, build something rigorous enough to hold up, and translate findings into something that actually gets used.
These projects span child welfare and family justice, youth civic engagement, criminal legal reform, transit and housing, community health, and program evaluation. They include multi-year research initiatives, citywide curriculum design, participatory grantmaking, and direct policy advocacy. Across all of it, the approach has been the same.
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Good research doesn’t just document what’s happening. It builds the conditions for something better to become possible. |
Example Past Projects
Family Justice Movement Fund — Participatory Grantmaking
I co-developed a participatory grantmaking process from design to award — including rubric creation, applicant outreach, proposal review, and collaborative decision-making — with a focus on resourcing grassroots family justice organizers working to transform New York’s child welfare system, particularly those outside New York City who are often overlooked by traditional philanthropic processes.
▸ Participatory Grantmaking ▸ Child Welfare Reform ▸ Family Justice ▸ Statewide
Participatory Research on Mandated Reporting Reform
I co-designed and managed a multi-year participatory research initiative with parent researchers to examine New York State’s mandated reporting system from the inside out — co-designing the inquiry, shaping the interview process, and leading analysis alongside families directly impacted by child welfare. Findings are being synthesized into policy briefs and legislative proposals supporting a $15M pilot program to transform mandated reporting statewide.
▸ Participatory Action Research ▸ Child Welfare ▸ Legislative Reform ▸ Policy Brief Development
Direct Cash Transfer Research for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
I co-designed and co-led research for the nation’s first direct cash transfer pilot for young adults leaving foster care; including baseline survey design, participatory data collection, focus groups, and analysis with 100 participants receiving $1,000 per month for one year. Findings were translated into city and state policy advocacy, and I worked directly with the city’s child welfare agency to integrate participatory methods into agency practice and redesign their client experience survey.
▸ Mixed-Methods Research ▸ Foster Care ▸ Economic Justice ▸ Direct Policy Advocacy
Youth Participatory Action Research
I trained high school and college-aged youth as researchers and led them through a full participatory inquiry into the connections between transportation access, housing, education, and economic mobility in New York City. Using mixed methods including autoethnography and creative inquiry, youth researchers designed the study, collected and analyzed data, and produced a policy brief that translated their lived experience into recommendations for city policymakers.
▸ Youth PAR ▸ Transit Justice ▸ Housing ▸ Research Brief ▸ Youth Development
Citywide Police Training Curriculum on Youth and Community Interaction
I led qualitative research — analyzing focus group transcripts and interviews with youth about their experiences with police — and synthesized findings into a comprehensive, full-day citywide training curriculum for NYPD officers, co-developed with city agency partners and community organizations. The curriculum was built on Positive Youth Development and Trauma-Informed Care principles and designed to be youth-facilitated, centering community knowledge as the driver of institutional change.
▸ Qualitative Research ▸ Curriculum Design ▸ Policing and Community Trust ▸ Positive Youth Development
Participatory Grantmaking for Family Regulation and Child Welfare Reform
As a member of a participatory grantmaking committee focused on reducing family regulation across New York City, I co-developed funding priorities, criteria, and decision-making structures centered on equity and shared power, with a focus on reaching grassroots and family-justice organizations often passed over by traditional philanthropy. I also led impact reporting and partnered with grantees to co-design research and evaluation tools, strengthening their capacity for data-informed advocacy beyond the grant cycle.
▸ Participatory Grantmaking ▸ Family Justice ▸ Child Welfare Reform ▸ Capacity Building