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Francoise Armand is a portfolio manager and senior private sector adviser providing technical leadership and support in international health.She is responsible for supporting Abt’s private-sector health portfolio, and oversaw the DFID-supported Zambia Scaling Up Family Planning project. Armand has expertise in the area of market-based strategies for health, including total market initiatives under the USAID-funded Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) project. She has more than 15 years of program management expertise in global health, with a focus on family planning and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and maternal and child health.

David Judkins has 35 years of experience as a statistician supporting survey research, evaluation methodology and the evaluation of large-scale social interventions. Since joining Abt in 2012, he serves as a senior scientist consulting across the division on a variety of small and large evaluations covering topics that range from questionnaire design to analytic strategies.Judkins has recently focused his career on the evaluation of social interventions, particularly in the fields of adult job training, education, prosocial mass-media campaigns and child welfare.   

Allan Porowski joined the Social and Economic Policy Division of Abt Global in 2014 as a principal associate. He is a leading expert in the design, execution and analysis of randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies and national cross-site evaluations of education, health and other social interventions.

Frank Divita has extensive experience in contract management, project management and technical support to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Divita has more than 15 years of EPA experience performing and managing technical studies of air pollution issues, with a focus on the development of control strategies, emissions inventories, air quality, and control cost analyses for criteria, hazardous air pollutants and greenhouse gases. He has successfully managed seven multiyear support contracts and more than 120 work assignments under a variety of EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) contracts. He is the author of several technical documents to support OAQPS in their analyses of Clean Air Act requirements to perform Regulatory Impact Assessments for these rules.

Mauricio Poodts is the vice president of Abt’s Information Technology Department. He leads all major IT initiatives, strategies and policies, as well as oversees Abt’s technology infrastructure and services. In a 15-year career at Abt, Poodts has significantly advanced the company’s technology capabilities, leading a major technology transformation and virtually connecting Abt colleagues around the world. At Abt, he has served in a number of positions, including director of IT infrastructure, international IT manager and senior business technologist. His prior experience included private-sector consulting, as well as experience in the energy and construction sectors.

Sheila P. Burke is a strategic advisor in the Washington, D.C. office of Baker Donelson and chair of the firm’s Government Relations & Policy Group. An expert in health policy, Burke is a member of the faculty at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is a Distinguished Visitor at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. Burke held a number of positions during a 19-year career on Capitol Hill – including staff director of the Senate Finance Committee responsible for legislation relating to Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs – and chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

David Cooley is an environmental scientist with more than 15 years of experience working in climate change and environmental management. His work has focused on the interactions between climate change mitigation, air pollution reductions, and improvements in public health. He has managed multiple projects for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Agency for International Development, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to evaluate opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions.

Manoj P. Singh is the former chief operating officer and global managing director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ltd.  Prior to his mandatory retirement in June 2015, Singh’s responsibilities included leading various Deloitte initiatives, including setting global strategy, directing investments globally, leading areas such as finance, global technology, knowledge management, branding, and guiding country leadership in high-growth markets such as China, India, Africa, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Germany.

Daniel Gubits conducts research in the areas of housing, homelessness, economic self-sufficiency and disability policy. Gubits’ expertise is in econometric modeling, data analysis, and random assignment program evaluation.Gubits serves as the director of analysis for the Family Options Study, conducted for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He is also leading the impact analysis work for the Social Security Administration’s Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) project. Both of these are random assignment impact evaluations.

Lawrence Buron is an applied economist specializing in housing policy and the impact of government programs on labor market and quality-of-life outcomes of individuals and communities. An experienced leader of large-scale research and evaluation projects, he has led evaluations of the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV), HOPE VI, post-disaster housing options, and community redevelopment programs. He directs a random-assignment study of 36-month outcomes from 29 Health Profession Opportunity Grants and other innovative education and training programs to improve the career pathways and economic well-being of low-income, low-skilled workers.