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ACET employs six staff: five evaluators who are members of either
the American Evaluation Association or the American
Educational Research Association and an office
administrative assistant. We also collaborate
with seven partnering consultants to provide evaluation
support to our clients.
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Stella SiWan Zimmerman,
M.A.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Stella
has consulted with a variety
of organizations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and
Indiana. The New York Times and
several other major
U.S.
newspapers and local radio and television programs have
cited her research and commentaries.
She has presented and facilitated sessions on evaluation
for the American Evaluation Association, the U.S.
Department of Education, and the
University
of
Wisconsin
at
Madison. Stella was announced an Arizona State University
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Leader for being a
distinguished graduate, and was named a Princeton
University Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1996. |
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Kirsten L. Rewey, Ph.D.
Research and Evaluation Associate
Kirsten spent many years as an Assistant and Associate
Professor for Saint Vincent College and Saint Mary's
University. She brings expertise, through her studies
in Experimental Psychology, in designing and applying
evidence-based research methodologies to various
projects. The majority of her work is focused on
assessing the efficacy of instructional changes and
teaching techniques on student learning. Her commitment
in the field of research and evaluation includes the
improvement of technology use to enhance student
learning and the examination of alternative formats and
learning strategies on human information processing. |
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Heather L. Wolfgram, MSW.
Research and Evaluation Associate
Heather has several
years of field experience conducting interviews and in
facilitating focus group discussions in non-profit
settings throughout Minnesota and in Wisconsin. Prior to
joining ACET, Heather conducted and disseminated
research projects on issues related to domestic violence
and designed an evaluation to measure the community’s
response to sexual assault cases for the Family Support
Center in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Heather also
authored the 2007 Watch report on the Impact of
Minnesota’s Felony Strangulation law. |
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Walter Novillo, M.A.
Research Specialist
Walter has worked in the development and delivery of
many educational programs targeted to increase college
participation of underrepresented students. His current research interests include
postsecondary transitions, organization development, and
multicultural communication. Walter brings a strong
background in strategic development, data
acquisition, and analysis to ACET, as well as knowledge
of Hispanic culture and Spanish-language fluency. Walter
has advised local, state, and federal agencies on the
development and implementation of several multicultural
initiatives. |
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Joseph Curiel
Evaluation Specialist
Joseph specializes in the evaluation of education
programs aimed to improve student outcomes. While
pursuing his M.A. in Sociology he served as a principal
evaluator for two large scale research projects
sponsored by the University of Houston that evaluated a
reading program implemented in a large school district.
Joseph’s background includes serving as a teaching
assistant and tutor in research methods, social
statistics, and social theory. His research interests
include education, health, and public policy.
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Angelica Easterling
Administrative Assistant
Angelica received her
Administrative Office Professional certificate from
Crown College and has worked in office administration
and customer relations for over five years. She is
currently pursuing her Associate in Human Resources at
Saint Paul College. |
Partnering Consultants
Michael C. Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Michael is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Educational Psychology at the
University
of Minnesota. Dr. Rodriguez specializes in measurement and
assessment, investigating issues related to construct
equivalence of test items in various formats, classroom
assessment practices, and assessment of achievement for
students with moderate to severe impairments. He
has worked extensively with schools and school districts to
develop methods for improving their use of large-scale test
information for planning and evaluation. He is currently
conducting validity studies of several youth development
program evaluation instruments. Dr. Rodriguez also serves as
the Chair of the Educational Testing Services Technical
Advisory Committee for the Graduate Record Examination.
Mary
Ellen Murphy, M.A.
Mary Ellen
has worked with over 60 metropolitan and rural
Minnesota
organizations linking evaluation to program and organization
planning. She began her independent consulting practice in
1990 after working as the Director of Planning and Policy at
Women Venture and as a Senior Researcher at the Earl Craig
Company. Her approach to evaluation enhances the use of
evaluation findings and builds organizational capacity. In
addition to evaluation, Ms. Murphy trains in evaluation,
facilitates planning processes and coaches executive
directors in organizational change. She has also developed
and completed organizational assessments for local and
national organizations.
Marcel Montañez, Ph.D.
Marcel
specializes in applied research and evaluation,
and has extensive experience in quantitative methodology and
has a vested interest in Latino research. He has served as
a consultant on a number of projects relevant to Latino
families and children in
Minnesota, and has recently served as team leader and
methodologist for the National Evaluation of Early Head
Start (NEEHS) risk and resiliency work group through
University Outreach at
Michigan
State
University.
Dr. Montañez has been recognized internationally for his
research in risk and resilience and was invited to present
his work at the 2002 World Association of Infant Mental
Health scientific meeting in
Amsterdam, as well as the
2003 Research Society on Alcoholism's annual scientific
meeting in
Florida. He
is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Family and Consumer Science at
New Mexico
State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Karen DeYoung, M.Ed.
Karen is
the CEO of DeYoung Consulting Services, LLC, a management
consulting company that works to provide quality learning
experiences for a variety of organizations, including
government agencies, corporations, non-profit entities, and
schools. Ms. DeYoung has worked as an instructional design
and performance improvement consultant since 1996. She works
to analyze organizational performance needs and to design
and develop solutions (training manuals, workshops,
self-study guides, job performance aides, etc.) that
effectively address those needs. She specializes in
customized, rather than out of the box, solutions and
provides clients with a particularly comprehensive
performance analysis process that identifies and offers
recommendations for both training and non-training related
challenges.
Nancy Smith, B.A., is an enrolled member of the Sisseton
Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota Nation).
Her
background is in education and nonprofit management. She has
thirty+ years of experience in program, project and staff
administration and supervision; program and project design,
development, implementation and evaluation; communications
and development; group facilitation and teambuilding;
advocacy and lobbying; and grant making. She has worked
with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Nation, Arizona Center for
Law in the Public Interest, St. Paul American Indian Center,
Urban Coalition, Center for School Change, and the Women’s
Foundation of Minnesota. A big part of her career has been
working in education as an administrator, advocate and
lobbyist. While working with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate,
she was responsible for the development of a cultural-based
pre-school, Dakota Language Immersion Program, reading
program for students with developmental disabilities, the
Tiospa Zina Tribal School, and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal
Community College.
Nancy is currently the Communications and Development
Director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s
Resource
Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Nancy
Weiss,
M.Ed. For over 15 years, Nancy has provided tailored
solutions to training, educational, organizational
development, and communication needs to a wide variety of
clients within the non profit, government, small business,
and corporate sectors. Her varied skills encompass
analysis, design, and development of plans and tools, and
program evaluation. Some highlights of her career include
the development of numerous train-the-trainer courses and
the creation of change management, knowledge management
tools, and human resource materials. She is also an expert
in the analysis of work processes and structures and the
development and delivery of traditional and technology-based
training and educational programs. Most recently, she has
worked as an executive coach and mentor helping clients
improve their skills as instructional designers and as
managers.
Jason Strate is a Microsoft Certified Professional who consults on
database platforms from Microsoft Access to Structured Query
Language (SQL) Server, and has worked on systems ranging
from single-user desktop solutions to enterprise clustered
server environments. Currently, he is the SQL Server
Database Administrator for Performark, Inc., a business-to-
business lead management firm. He oversees the design and
management of the agency’s database infrastructure. Past
development projects have included fraud risk systems that
reviewed more than five million transactions daily for
corporate fraud, an enterprise level corporate approval
platform, and building a fraud database of all registered
transactions for a local major retailer. At the time of
completion, the fraud database was ranked in the top 10
databases in the world for size on the Microsoft SQL Server
database architecture. Mr. Strate attended
Anoka-Ramset Community College and Bethel College as a
business major. |