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Elizabeth Giardino’s evaluation and technical assistance work on housing, community development, asset building, and government innovation policies and programs promotes opportunity and healthy outcomes for people across the U.S. Giardino specializes in leading teams, strategic planning, and relationship building, and has proven expertise in incorporating community-based participatory research into technical assistance engagements.

Brooke Abrams is a trained political scientist and researcher. With over 11 years of experience, she specializes in applied housing and health, bringing expertise in managing and contributing to place-based, mixed-method, and community-centered solutions. Her work spans research, evaluation, and technical assistance (TA) projects across diverse policy domains, delivering innovative and tailored strategies to drive impactful change.As a Client Solutions Architect at Abt, Abrams plays a pivotal role in designing client-focused frameworks and solutions that emphasize rigorous, data-informed, multi-disciplinary, and population-tailored design. She specializes in community-specific, monitoring, evaluation, and technical assistance approaches to engage and work alongside persons with lived expertise.

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.

Geoff Scahill has over 20 years of experience working in and managing international development programs. He has worked extensively within Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific – predominantly in Indonesia, Fiji, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. He brings a long history as a health sector professional and has held roles as a health management advisor and health systems adviser in Pacific Island Countries. Geoff draws on his background in finance and economics to work with counterparts to increase efficiencies within the programs Abt Global delivers.

Lauren Dunton is a Principal Associate with almost two decades of experience as a social science researcher evaluating programs and analyzing policies relating to homelessness, housing, workforce, and education across the country. As a seasoned Project Director, Ms. Dunton has led complex research and technical assistance projects for a range of federal agencies, state governments, and national foundation and philanthropic organizations. She has expertise in qualitative and mixed-method data collection and analysis, leading project teams, and authoring reports. 

Marianne El-Khoury is a seasoned health professional with a proven track record of leading and managing large-scale health programs. At Abt, she has held senior management and technical roles on USG-funded projects in health systems strengthening, infectious diseases, and private sector health. She has also led research and evaluation studies in family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and health financing.

Laura Blake has more than 20 years of experience in leading scientific programs and research in the environmental science and policy domain. She has deep expertise in surface water quality restoration and protection and has spent her career designing and implementing scientific studies to support efforts to protect human health and aquatic environments. She has significant knowledge of Clean Water Act rules and regulations and has extensive experience supporting federal and state regulatory programs with implementation of and compliance with the federal Clean Water Act.

Joe Donahue is an environmental policy specialist and portfolio manager with more than 15 years of experience supporting governments in developing and implementing policies and programs focused on climate change, clean energy, ozone layer protection, and solid waste management. His work spans both domestic and international programs and initiatives. Technical areas of expertise include climate change mitigation strategies; international capacity building; greenhouse gas quantification methods; short-lived climate pollutants, especially methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons; and clean energy policies.

David Kaz, a principal associate in Abt’s Social and Economic Policy Division, has nearly 20 years of experience providing technical assistance, training, research, and policy analysis. He has worked on a wide range of programs and policies that affect low-income populations. He has directed, designed, and conducted both large- and small-scale, multi-faceted technical assistance projects for federal and state agencies and other clients and stakeholders. Clients have included the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service, Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services, King County, and the City of Seattle. He has worked on workforce legislation with members of Congress.