10 Lessons for Building Government and Research Partnerships That Matter

Experience the Event

Presented by

Bridge the gap between social service leadership and rigorous scientific research to move people out of poverty permanently. Join Notre Dame’s LEO and JPAL North America for a discussion on building high-impact partnerships. Learn how data-driven collaboration transforms lives and empowers government leaders to create lasting, equitable impact.

Featured Speakers:

• Carrie Cihak, Public Sector Evidence Leader (formerly King County)
• Louise Geraghty, Government Partnerships Lead, J-PAL North America
• Patrick Turner, Assistant Professor of Economics, Notre Dame, LEO Researcher
• Moderated by Vincent Quan, Acting Executive Director, J-PAL North America

Partner with LEO

The Evidence Matters series is sponsored on ThinkND by the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). Poverty is stubborn and requires the utmost collaboration of thought and action to drive change. People of goodwill must bring their unique strengths and positions together to solve this problem. At LEO, we believe knowledge has to be combined with action. But poverty can’t be solved by just one person, or even one sector. That’s why we bring together innovative social service provider partners, top-tier academics, philanthropists, policymakers, and others to tackle poverty.

Change is possible. And with your action, we can get one step closer to reducing poverty in our country, together. 

Your job is to act. What will you do?

For more information, please visit LEO’s website.

Meet the Speaker: Louise Geraghty

Louise Geraghty is the government partnerships lead at J-PAL North America, where she develops and oversees strategy around connecting researchers in the J-PAL network with state and local governments. Programs she manages include the State and Local Innovation Initiative and the LEVER project, a joint effort with Results for America focused on building capacity around evidence and evaluation with state and local governments. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago.

Meet the Speaker: Carrie Cihak

Carrie S. Cihak is the King County Evidence & Impact Officer. In this role, Carrie develops external partnerships that expand research and evaluation capacity to help county agencies advance equity and augment the positive impact of King County’s work. Carrie also develops partnerships to highlight successful practices and lessons that may be of value to other departments and jurisdictions.

Carrie has worked at King County for more than 20 years. Before joining DES, Carrie built research partnerships and evidence-building practices at King County Metro. Other positions included serving as Executive Constantine’s Policy Director and working on the County Council’s central staff. 

Before joining King County, Carrie worked for The White House Council of Economic Advisers, taught economics at The College of William & Mary, and worked in the public education system in Japan. Carrie has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in economics from Boston University.

Outside of work, Carrie is happiest when making pie, knits, new friends, and good trouble. Carrie and partner, George, live in central Seattle with three cats adopted from Regional Animal Services of King County.

Meet the Speaker: Patrick Turner

Patrick Turner is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame and a researcher with the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). He is an applied microeconomist who focuses on the intersection of public policy and the labor market. Through his work with LEO, he partners with state and local governments and social service agencies to quantify the impact of their adult education, workforce, and anti-poverty programs. His research has been published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Human Resources, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Since 2024, he is a research affiliate with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). In 2018, he joined the University of Notre Dame as a research faculty with LEO.

Meet the Moderator: Vincent Quan

Vincent Quan is co-executive director of J-PAL North America. Together with Laura Feeney, his co-executive director, Vincent leads the office’s efforts to reduce poverty by ensuring policy is informed by rigorous evidence in the North America region. Vincent provides strategic direction to the policy and training teams and oversees partnership development and outreach for the office. He works closely with policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and donors to promote evidence generation and increase the use of evidence in policy making.

Prior to his role as co-executive director, Vincent led the policy team at J-PAL North America. He has extensive experience translating the results from randomized evaluations into action, promoting a culture of evidence-informed policy across the region. Vincent oversaw J-PAL North America’s efforts to cultivate lasting relationships with partners across the evidence-based policymaking ecosystem, including government policymakers, philanthropic leaders, and nonprofit heads. He also launched multiple new initiatives, including the Education Technology and Opportunity Initiative and the Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Initiative, to generate important studies to identify effective solutions to address poverty. Under Vincent’s leadership, research catalyzed by J-PAL North America directly informed policy across all levels of government, including federal recommendations and state policies on education.

Before joining J-PAL, Vincent worked at the Prison Law Office, where he conducted research to improve conditions of confinement in prisons across California, and at the Legal Aid Society in New York City, where he assisted low-income residents in navigating the criminal court system. He holds a master’s in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in history from UC Berkeley.