Preparing for Evaluation

King County Metro and Notre Dame’s LEO lab are re-engineering social service delivery, codifying racial equity through a transformative researcher-practitioner model. This isn’t just data—it’s a co-creative learning pipeline designed for systemic change. Explore how rigorous evidence-building is redefining the value proposition of civic interventions.

Experience the Event

Presented by

Featured Speakers:

Betina Jean-Louis, Ph.D., Principal Consultant, Arc of Evidence Senior Advisor, Project Evident
David Phillips, Associate Research Professor, LEO
Jacqueline Kelley-Cogdell, Research Associate, LEO
Sara Sisco, Mobility Management Program Manager, Hopelink
Krisda Chaiyachati, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Maria Jimenez-Zepeda, Reduced Fares Project Manager King County Metro
Christina McHugh, Regional Housing and Homelessness Evaluation Manager, King County Department of Community and Human Services

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.

Betina Jean-Louis, Ph.D. is the founder and principal consultant of Arc of Evidence LLC, which works with social change agents to create, assess, and continuously improve interventions that promote equity and social justice. She was previously Senior Managing Director of Research and Evaluation at the Harlem Children’s Zone, where she built the organization’s noted culture of data and continuous program improvement. Over the years, she has led evaluations of many programs, and provided guidance to foundations, municipalities, federal agencies, and communities about policies and programs relating to health, place-based, and educational interventions. In line with her commitment to “ensure do-gooders actually do good,” she focuses on the importance of the continuous use of data and keeping practitioners and educators at the center of learning and decision making. She created a guidance document for President Obama’s poverty-fighting Promise Neighborhoods program to replicate the HCZ model. A first-generation immigrant and college student, Betina earned a B.A. in Psychology from Columbia and M.S., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Developmental Psychology from Yale.

Meet the Speaker: Jacqueline Kelley-Cogdell

Jacqueline Kelley-Cogdell was a research associate in LEO focused on the causes of and solutions to poverty. She then started did a year of AmeriCorps service at NS/S in 2024. Jacqueline has a BA in Economics from Allegheny College.

Meet the Speaker: Sara Sisco

Sara Sisco currently manages Hopelink’s Mobility Education and Outreach programs, including Public Transit Orientations and resource tabling events provided by subregional Coordinators. Her programs offer sustainable, consistent opportunities for partners and stakeholders to bring personalized education and mobility resources to their organizations and communities. She previously worked as the Mobility Management Program Manager at Hopelink.

Meet the Speaker: Krisda Chaiyachati

Krisda H. Chaiyachati, MD, MPH, MSHP, FACP, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He continues to practice primary care and internal medicine for the University of Pennsylvania Health System and is the National Medical Director for Clinical Transformation for Ascension Health.

Dr. Chaiyachati was previously the Physician Lead for Value-Based Care and Innovation for Verily (a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc.). Before that, Dr. Chaiyachati was the founding Medical Director for Penn Medicine OnDemand Virtual Care, the founding Medical Director for PennOpenPass, the inaugural Director for the Leonard Davis Institute-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory, and a clinical innovation manager within the Center for Health Care Innovation. He has published extensively and is a prominent thought leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating strategies that improve equity, efficiency, and access to care through transformative digital health initiatives. He is on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Meet the Speaker: Maria Jimenez-Zepeda

Maria Jimenez-Zepeda is a project/program manager with the Safety Emphasis Program at King County Metro Transit, and served as a leader in the ORCA Reduced Fare Program with King County Metro. She previously worked as the Immigrant and Refugee Commissioner for the City of Seattle. She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Yale University and an MPA from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington.

Meet the Speaker: Christina McHugh

Christina McHugh is the Senior Evaluation Manager for Housing and Adult Services at King County’s Housing, Homelessness, and Community Development Division . She previously served as the Regional Housing and Homelessness Evaluation Manager, where she lead the County’s efforts to study the effectiveness of King County’s regional homeless response system, homelessness prevention programs, affordable housing policy and programs, and COVID-19 response. She has more than a decade of experience evaluating social programs, including studies for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Christina holds a Master of Public Policy and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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