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Elaine Baruwa has more than 15 years of experience conducting program evaluations, economic evaluations, and working on pricing and costing policies and tools for the financing of health services and health systems in Nigeria, Haiti, Ethiopia, China, Bangladesh and other low-income countries.

Lauren Olsho is a senior health economist and evaluator with expertise in random assignment, quasi-experimental evaluation methods, economic modeling methodology, and advanced statistical and econometric analysis.Olsho’s primary research interests are in health, nutrition and health behaviors in vulnerable populations – including the elderly, the poor, program participants, minorities, arrestees and at-risk youth.Olsho recently served as principal investigator on a cluster random assignment evaluation of the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality On-Time Falls Prevention Initiative, a clinical decision support intervention to reduce falls in long-term care settings.

Jason Brinkley, Ph.D., is a biostatistician, data scientist and health researcher who leads the Research Design and Analytics team in Abt’s Data Science, Surveys and Enabling Technologies division. Brinkley has expertise in a wide range of analytic methods, and he specializes in machine learning, customized data visualizations, maps and dash-boarding. Brinkley balances research time between examining theoretical ways to assess the impact of medical interventions on public health and developing best practices for using statistical software. A member of the American Statistical Association, AcademyHealth, and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, he also serves on the executive board of the Southeast SAS Users Group.

Dr. Michael Plotzke is a senior health economist with expertise in the area of Medicare payment policy, the organization of healthcare providers and quality measurement. His work typically involves the analysis of large datasets such as Medicare claims, assessment and enrollment data. Dr. Plotzke serves as principal investigator for multiple projects with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  On the “Home Health Prospective Payment System and Hospice: Analysis Support and Monitoring” project, Dr. Plotzke leads a team of researchers in analyzing trends in Medicare hospice and home health usage and constructing large-scale payment reform options for both benefits.  Dr. Plotzke also leads the “Evaluation of the Medicare Care Choices Model” project that evaluates a new payment model for end-of-life care that is being tested with 141 hospice providers.  This project involves analysis of existing administrative data and collection of new data through surveys of caregivers, surveys of hospice providers and in-depth case studies of hospice providers participating in the model.

For 15 years, Lauren Dunton has been working in homelessness, housing, workforce, and education research at Abt. As an experienced Project Director, Dunton manages research and technical assistance projects for a range of federal agencies and foundation clients. She has expertise in qualitative data collection and analysis, including coordinating and conducting site visits and managing the collection of site-level administrative data.

Meghan Lynch, Sc.D., is an accomplished manager of cross-disciplinary teams, with 20 years of experience specializing in toxicology and human health risk assessment. She is skilled at interpreting, evaluating, and communicating toxicological and epidemiological information for hazardous substances. She has managed a variety of projects for ATSDR, OSHA, EPA, and nonprofit agencies. These include leading tasks requiring the synthesis of toxicological information and risk assessments, and performing both probabilistic and benchmark dose modeling. The results of these projects have been subject to peer review. Lynch has also provided memorandums and analyses supporting risk assessments and addressing industry comments, which have been used to support plaintiffs in litigation for chemical contaminants.

Donna DeMarco has more than 30 years of experience successfully designing and managing research studies on a variety of federal, state, and local programs targeted to lower income individuals and families. She has experience with program evaluation and policy analysis in a wide variety of fields, including asset building, community and economic development, housing, family development, education, job training, and community services. She has expertise in the implementation of qualitative research and data collection for large-scale, multi-modal, experimental research projects.

Olga Zues, a health-system and financing specialist, has 20 years of experience in international development. She focuses on the design and implementation of comprehensive reform strategies to strengthen health systems and public finance management. Her expertise includes benefits design to move towards universal health coverage, arrangements to support efficiency gains and service delivery improvements, innovative payment mechanisms, sustainability strategies, and institutional development. She has worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UK Department for International Development – now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – and numerous ministries of health, finance, justice, and education.

Sarah J. Shoemaker-Hunt has more than 15 years of experience as a health services researcher and implementation scientist. As an experienced pharmacist, she brings a practice-informed lens to her role conducting mixed-methods studies and evaluations and delivering technical assistance and quality improvement projects for federal health agencies. They include the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Clients also include non-governmental organizations. Sarah is the Abt client account lead for AHRQ.