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Jessen Carroll is a human resources (HR) professional with more than 20 years of experience overseeing all aspects of HR, organizational communications, governance, and administration functions. She has experience leading organizational integrations and change management efforts. She also has operations management, business analysis, business process improvement, and project management experience. She can balance tactical day-to-day operational needs with a strategic grasp of long-term business objectives. 

Melanie Metropolit is a public health strategist with more than 20 years of experience across federal health, research, and international development initiatives.

Lauren Olsho is a senior health economist and evaluator with expertise in random assignment, quasi-experimental evaluation methods, economic modeling methodology, and advanced statistical and econometric analysis.Olsho’s primary research interests are in health, nutrition and health behaviors in vulnerable populations – including the elderly, the poor, program participants, minorities, arrestees and at-risk youth.Olsho recently served as principal investigator on a cluster random assignment evaluation of the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality On-Time Falls Prevention Initiative, a clinical decision support intervention to reduce falls in long-term care settings.

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.

Dr. Michael Plotzke is a senior health economist with expertise in the area of Medicare payment policy, the organization of healthcare providers and quality measurement. His work typically involves the analysis of large datasets such as Medicare claims, assessment and enrollment data. Dr. Plotzke serves as principal investigator for multiple projects with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  On the “Home Health Prospective Payment System and Hospice: Analysis Support and Monitoring” project, Dr. Plotzke leads a team of researchers in analyzing trends in Medicare hospice and home health usage and constructing large-scale payment reform options for both benefits.  Dr. Plotzke also leads the “Evaluation of the Medicare Care Choices Model” project that evaluates a new payment model for end-of-life care that is being tested with 141 hospice providers.  This project involves analysis of existing administrative data and collection of new data through surveys of caregivers, surveys of hospice providers and in-depth case studies of hospice providers participating in the model.

Graham Teskey leads Abt Global’s Global Governance practice out of Canberra, Australia. He has 40 years of experience in governance and international development. He has worked with (and for) for the U.K.’s Department for International Development, (the forerunner to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), the World Bank, and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Graham has lived and worked in multiple countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Fiji, Vanuatu, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Philippines, and Timor-Leste.

Adam Schaefer has over 16 years’ experience developing and managing environmental epidemiology research and evaluation projects. He is an expert in the health impacts of environmental exposures and has worked on both national and international projects, focusing on infectious disease, toxicology, health surveillance, and One Health. Before coming to Abt, Schaefer was a researcher at Florida Atlantic University. He has published numerous epidemiological studies in peer-reviewed journals.

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.