Dabbling in the Data: Hands on Data Analysis for Teams and Community Partners

Jessica began her career as a peer volunteer on a national LGBTQ youth talkline providing support ranging from referrals to suicide prevention to information about local LGBTQ community centers. Challenged by what she heard on the talkline, and by some of her own experiences with the health care system, she developed an interest in health education, equity and advocacy, which launched a career in the social services sector. Eventually, Jessica combined that with a lifetime love of numbers and inquiry, which led her to program evaluation.

Prior to joining Public Profit, Jessica had several years of experience creating, directing and evaluating a range of youth development, LGBTQ, and health programs. Her work has run the gamut of nonprofit and social service roles including program design, strategy, nonprofit finance, human resources, and internal evaluations. Jessica earned her BA degree in Latin American Studies at Carleton College, and completed a year of theology studies at the Pacific School of Religion. She is proficient in Spanish.

Jessica’s project portfolio has recently included:

-An on-going evaluation of California Mini-Corps, a statewide migrant pupil tutoring program and bilingual/bicultural teacher training program.

-Designing an evaluation strategy including evaluation of policy and advocacy efforts for Afterschool Alliance's STEM Hub.

-Leading an evaluation of a national foundation’s COVID Emergency grants supporting over 250 education, media, anti-poverty, arts, and environmental organizations.

-Facilitating four different Data for Equity cohort for anti-poverty organizations in the greater Bay Area funded by Tipping Point Community, including one specific to national workforce development organizations.

-Advise the Health Children and Family theme of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) on its equity capacity-building strategy including key informant interviews with staff and grantees, a field scan of similar programs, and co-design of a new grant-making effort.

-A multi-year evaluation of a diverse range of Fellowships in post-secondary career and technical education (CTE) supported by the ECMC Foundation.

Helen’s background is in Public Health with a passion for illuminating health disparities for invisible populations. Growing up in her Tongan, Pacific Islander community in Los Angeles, CA she quickly understood that she wanted to dedicate her career to service and public health advocacy. Her motivations lead her to serve as a college and mental health counselor with middle school youth through AmeriCorps VISTA where she conducted academic advising interventions with 8th-grade scholars and managed a college center on-site. In this role, she realized how important acquiring school-level data for positive change is to improve the lives and wellbeing of students.

Helen earned her BA in Environmental Studies and Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she delved into her passions of environmental justice initiatives and peer advising. Her love for science and social justice inspired her public health journey. After her AmeriCorps gap year, she received her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan (U-M), School of Public Health. She has been trained in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), advanced statistical methodology, and theories of social behavior. Prior to starting at Public Profit, Helen worked as a Graduate Residential Advisor, Wellness Coach, and Pacific Islander adolescent health disparities researcher with the Institute for Social Research at U-M. Helen was drawn from her past experiences to Public Profit’s work focusing on data driven insights that help programs measure and improve the quality of programming.

Helen’s project portfolio has recently included:

-An evaluation of a space transformation project with Too Small to Fail and the California Department of Social Services.

-Co-facilitating Driving Toward Impact: Data for Equity, an intensive capacity-building cohort for Tipping Point Community grantees to adapt an equity lens to analyze potential inequities in their client services and outcomes.

-An evaluation of the San Pablo Beacon Community Schools Initiative, the City of San Pablo’s grant program to support the implementation of community schools at all San Pablo schools.

-An evaluation of Health Through Housing in King County, WA which provides housing within integrated systems of care to people experiencing chronic homelessness.