Search

Moira Forbes is a health policy leader with over 25 years of experience working with state and federal agencies on Medicaid and CHIP policy and operations. She focuses on providing time-sensitive, evidence-based analysis to support policymaking, operational planning, and program evaluation. She has worked with a wide range of health care stakeholders including providers, employers, public and private payers, foundations, trade associations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other health and human services agencies, state legislatures, and Congress. These diverse experiences help her provide well-informed insights for clients at all stages of the program lifecycle.

Shelby Hickman is a mixed methods research and evaluation professional with 14 years of experience in program evaluation, training and technical assistance, and analysis of criminal and juvenile justice administrative data. Dr. Hickman has expertise in overseeing studies funded by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. She has experience in causal inference methods for both random assignment and quasi-experimental designs. Additionally, she is proficient in qualitative methodologies, such as semi-structured interviews, focus groups, cognitive interviews, and observations. Hickman is also an expert in forced labor and human trafficking.

Marianne El-Khoury is a seasoned manager of global health programs. At Abt, she has held senior management and technical roles on USAID-funded projects in health systems strengthening and private sector health. She has also led research and evaluation studies in family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and health financing.El-Khoury is currently the Deputy Director of the $209 million Local Health System Sustainability (LHSS) Project, USAID’s flagship project in integrated health systems strengthening. She provides overall leadership, management, and oversight of project activities across more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. She also serves as the Global Development representative for Abt’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Cheryl Doty is an economic growth specialist with more than 25 years of experience managing and implementing donor-funded programs across 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. She has provided technical leadership to programs focused on enterprise development, trade & competitiveness, market system strengthening, agribusiness, food security, and resilience. Doty excels at managing high-profile USAID programs, including indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts, and blanket purchase agreements (BPAs). She is skilled at establishing strategic relationships with high-level government officials, implementing partners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. Doty has a strong track record of leading the capture, design, and development of winning USAID proposals. 

Lindiwe Chola Dlamini is a certified expert in climate change and renewable energy finance with 18 years’ experience in sustainable energy policy, resource mobilization, partnership development, and program management. Her career includes leadership, resource mobilization, and implementation roles for sustainable energy in Eswatini. She has provided expert technical advisory support for public-private partnership negotiations in energy infrastructure and team leadership for Eswatini's Programme for Affordable Renewable Energy. She has worked with start-up social enterprises and with development programs funded by the U.S. and EU government, African Development Bank, United Nations organizations, World Bank, and African Legal Support Facility.

Dr. Nora Connor is a data scientist at Abt Global, where she uses generative AI, cloud-based solutions, and automated workflows to improve data-driven decision-making for federal clients. Her clients include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). As the business owner for Abt’s AI strategy, Connor leads the Data Science team developing MLOps, automated real-time data streaming, Infrastructure as Code, and responsible AI solutions. She works directly with vendors and market partners to identify use cases to bring the best AI technologies to the public sector.

Dr. Cara Jackson is an evaluation expert with decades of experience designing and managing evaluations of education programs. She has extensive experience with a broad range of evaluation approaches, including quasi-experimental designs, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, and systematic evidence reviews. Jackson is a former pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teacher, and her work builds on that experience. It has included evaluations of teacher preparation programs, charter school program replication and expansion grants, and a variety of district-level educational programs. She also has developed a framework for democratizing the development of evidence to incorporate a greater variety of perspectives in evaluation. Jackson is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles on a range of topics, including a historical writing intervention and performance pay for educators. She has co-edited two books, one on teacher preparation program design and outcomes and another on assessment education. She has delivered over 50 conference presentations and invited talks in both academic and practice settings and has appeared on numerous podcasts. She currently serves as the president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, on the board of the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, and on the Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research Policymakers Council.

Dr. Rucha Londhe (She/her), Senior Director Equity, is an experienced human development specialist, evaluator, researcher, and technical assistance provider with a demonstrated history of working in education and behavioral health industries. She has over 18 years of experience conducting equitable research and evaluation and leads the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning and Adapting (MERLA) sub-capability within the equity capability at Abt Global. Skilled in qualitative research methods such as interviews and focus groups, Dr. Londhe has multiple experiences conducting community-based participatory research and evaluations with diverse populations including immigrants and Native American Tribes.

Adele Robinson brings to Abt more than 30 years of experience in policy development and advocating for children and education, with a focus on early childhood and the early elementary years. From Capitol Hill, national education associations, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to state and local agencies, she has supported the implementation of equitable and effective education as a means of providing success for all of our nation’s families. As a principal associate at Abt, she’ll continue to pursue these goals with our federal clients, as well as at the state and local level, using her expertise in complex policy analysis and strategic technical assistance.

Brooke Abrams is a trained political scientist and health equity expert with seven years of experience leading and contributing to equitable and anti-racist research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects. Her work innovates the fields of housing, criminal justice reform, and health equity across BIPOC populations. Abrams has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Casey Family Foundation to advance health and well-being across marginalized populations. Her technical assistance expertise focuses on meaningfully and equitably engaging persons with lived expertise to investigate pervasive inequities in communities’ coordinated entry housing systems. Brooke’s research has advanced prison reform in New Mexico, housing systems transformation in Minneapolis, and Abt’s Racial Equity Standardization.