MAKING SERVICES WORK BETTER FOR PEOPLE
We envision a world where everyone can access high-quality services that support them in developing their potential and reaching their career goals.
We partner with government agencies, colleges, and community organizations to improve services for people and communities. Using research, data, and design thinking, we help identify what’s working, what’s not, and develop practical, people-centered solutions.
By working at both the service and systems level, we strengthen the policies, practices, and data that shape people’s experiences. This includes designing better ways to measure impact, bringing in the voices of participants, students, staff, and community members, and using data intentionally to improve outcomes.
How We Work
From local programs to national initiatives, we tailor our approach to your context and work alongside participants, staff, and community members to co-create solutions and build capacity that works in practice.
Key Areas of Work
Applied Research & Evaluation
We help you understand what’s working, identify gaps, and measure whether and how your programs are achieving their intended impact.
Data Systems, Metrics & Culture
We help you build the data capacity and culture needed to measure impact and make progress visible.
Design & Program Improvement
We help you design and enhance programs so they are practical, effective, and people-centered.
Examples of our work
Meet Our Team
Bri Nguyen
Senior Managing Consultant
Bri Nguyen partners with organizations to improve how programs and systems work in practice by bringing together applied research, data, and the perspectives of participants and communities. With experience across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, she leads collaborative research and improvement efforts that help organizations use data more effectively, strengthen their capacity, and make meaningful changes that better serve their communities.
Kathleen Carson
Senior Research Analyst
Kathleen Carson, PhD, works with partners on community-centered research that includes and reflects the perspectives of the most impacted to inform policy and programs. Her work in applied research focuses on the use of data in programs, access to services, in particular to training and education programming, the impact of services, and program and project evaluation. Braiding together large data sources, program data, and community voice data, she works collaboratively with partners to identify gaps and opportunities for growth as well as to implement and test interventions.
Eileen Sleesman Calderon
Senior Research & Project Consultant
Eileen Calderon provides applied research and technical assistance to partners, helping them design and improve programs, policies, and services often administered and delivered across multiple agencies with complex funding and institutional requirements. Her work centers the knowledge, experience, and perspectives of those impacted by these efforts, especially those programs intend to serve. She holds a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington, with a background in ethnographic research, qualitative analysis, and interviewing in diverse, global contexts.
Shawon Sarkar
Senior Applied Researcher
Shawon Sarkar designs research that brings participant and practitioner voice together with program data, drawing on years of community-engaged work on equitable access to information and services. Her research asks how people interpret, evaluate and act on information in complex situations, and how systems can be designed to strengthen human judgement rather than replace it. She holds a PhD in Information Science from the University of Washington.
Get in Touch
Learn more about SJI’s Research, Data & Design work and how it can help you.