Who we are
Our Mission
PIE builds the capacity of mission-driven organizations to evaluate impact, promote learning, and facilitate equitable change.
Our Vision
PIE envisions a future where all organizations have the capacity to fulfill their missions, live their values, and serve their communities.
Our Values
S
Stewardship
We provide leadership that stewards projects through all planning, implementation, and evaluation phases in a way that is proactive, consensus-driven, solutions oriented, and assets based, such that all deadlines and deliverables are met.
E
Equity
We are dedicated to lifting up diverse voices, leading an inclusive process, and utilizing data to inform issues of equitable program implementation and outcomes, such that our processes and products promote equity across community members.
R
Responsiveness
We are always responsive to the unique needs of each project and seek to act like an internal partner, just down the hall, such that all questions and concerns are efficiently and effectively addressed.
V
Versatility
We are versatile in our approach to each project and will be flexible with project plans, timelines, and goals as new priorities arise. We will work with our clients to provide targeted support, as needed, to ensure the highest quality deliverables.
I
Implementation Capacity
We prioritize the implementation of our work products and will engage stakeholders to streamline processes and build capacity to implement and sustain changes in practice.
C
Collaboration
We lead a collaborative, transparent process that engages all stakeholders to achieve consensus understanding of process and goals. We believe that inclusive collaboration between program, community, and the evaluation team is critical to success.
E
Excellence
We strive for excellence in all we do. We provide rigorous, high quality planning, implementation, and evaluation services to all projects, regardless of scope or size.
Our Team
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Nancy is an executive management leader with diverse experience within the non-profit, education, and corporate sectors. She is committed to disrupting systems of oppression, advancing equity, and facilitating transformative
change. She brings a range of experiences to PIE, including team management and development; evaluation and research; project management; consulting; program and partner relations; and, building operational efficiencies. During her free time, she loves to read, cook, travel, and visit new restaurants.
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Jennifer is a creative problem-solver and measured risk-taker, focused on driving innovative and sustainable organizational improvements. She has worked as an evaluation and strategy consultant to nonprofit and government agencies since 1999 and has a deep passion for engaging staff and stakeholders to lead organizational change.
She holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and enjoys hiking and travel and has the dirt from more than 30 countries caking her boots.
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A trained social worker, research methodologist, and program evaluation enthusiast, Dr. Barbara Thomas brings more than two decades of experience working in the fields of program evaluation, education and research to PIE. Barbara seeks to support organizations in strengthening their effectiveness by using data to uncover programmatic strengths, opportunities for improvement and strategies to drive them.
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Carrie spent the first half of her career in the visual and performing arts arts before moving to the nonprofit sector as an internal evaluator, and later into tech, implementing data systems for nonprofits. With her proficiency in graphic design coupled with technical skills in data management and analytics, PIE is able to offer a variety of data communication strategies for clients that range from annual reports to infographics to dashboards. Always staying current with new tech solutions and a fan of automating burdensome tasks, our clients can always get a fresh approach to their data challenges.
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Anna (she/ella) has traversed the globe and the social impact sector as a high school and university instructor, researcher, immigrant and worker justice advocate, campaigns director, fund developer, racial equity and DEI specialist, and big-picture strategic thinker. She joins PIE with a focus on centering those most directly affected in any changemaking, offering community driven and culturally responsive impact solutions informed by critical analyses and lived experience. Anna is fluent in Spanish, and has ability in Portuguese and Arabic.
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As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a Master’s in Social Work and also in Public Health, Joie began her career in collective impact, where she developed an evaluation framework to tell the story behind relationships and its power to impact systems in a small Chicago suburb. Most recently, she facilitated that same collective impact coalition of over 40 community partnerships working towards six common goals. Joie believes in creating space for people and organizations to dream their wildest dreams in a way that allows for creative strategies to reach those goals to be developed. When not “in the office”, she likes to travel, currently her goal is to visit all 50 U.S. states.
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Karen is an educator with over twenty years of experience in curriculum development, program evaluation, and capacity building primarily in Chicago’s under-resourced communities. At the beginning of her career, she served as a classroom teacher and school leader, later transitioning to the nonprofit sector, using a person-centered mindset to guide program evaluation and professional learning in arts education. In addition to her work, Karen finds joy in music, dancing, gardening, and dogs.
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Early in Matt’s career he spent time working as a caretaker for older adults with developmental disabilities. While at the University of Michigan, he provided evaluation and capacity-building consulting services for several mission driven organizations and received his Master’s in Social Work. With his education, training, and personal experiences, he seeks to engage stakeholders with an equitable evaluation approach to create meaningful social justice outcomes for community members. In his free time, Matt likes to read, catch the latest movies, and grow his film camera collection.
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Francisca earned her M.Ed. in Educational Research Methodology at Boston College and is currently a doctoral student at Loyola University Chicago. As a Senior Research Associate at PIE Org, she applies her research knowledge by conducting data analysis and statistical testing for clients. Francisca is passionate about international affairs and global peace and enjoys working on mixed-methods research and evaluation in her daily work.
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Eleanor’s early career was spent in secondary/higher education, where she worked on college campuses and high school college access programs. She first joined PIE Org as a graduate intern, utilizing her experiences in academia and secondary/higher education to assist in serving organizations focused on education. A current doctoral candidate in Research Methodology, she brings to the table a wealth of knowledge and skills in academia, evaluation, and research. Over the years, Eleanor has become PIE Org’s ‘go-to’ person for literature reviews; she also supports design, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
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Laura has worked at PIE since its inception, bringing with her the knowledge and background she developed early in her career in corporate finance and credit. She supports PIE’s work and growth behind the scenes by managing day-to-day operations and human resources/management responsibilities.
Laura coordinates the back-end functions of PIE, while aiming for effective communication with staff, clients, and vendors so that our team in the field is seamlessly supported.
Board
Wendy Fine
Director BAM Research and Evaluation
Youth Guidance
Kimberlee Guenther, Ph.D.
Chief Impact Officer
United Way of Metro Chicago
Leanne Kallemeyn, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Research Methodology
Loyola University
Ellen Cohen
Executive Director
Center for Health and the Social Sciences -University of Chicago
Bala Kattappuram
Director of Planning and Project Management
People’s Gas
Kim Tyler
Assistant Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Kylia Kummer
Executive Director
Thrive Scholars