My friends call me "MJ".  I am an independent program evaluation specialist doing business as “Chatham Evaluation” in Chatham, Massachusetts. I am a “company of one”[1] . I enjoy collaborating with teams. My ideal clients are small not for profit organizations and subcontracts or collaborations with other evaluators for larger initiatives.

From 2007 until 2020, I was Program Research Specialist at the New York State Department of Health. I was the lead evaluator for two state-wide multi-site initiatives, "Creating Healthy Places to Live Work and Play" (2010-2015) and Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (2015-2020). The goal of these two initiatives was to improve policy, practice, and environmental supports for healthy eating and physical activity in high-need communities, their worksites, and school districts.

From 2005-2007, I worked at the Evaluation Consortium at the University at Albany/SUNY as an Evaluation Specialist. I managed program evaluations for federal, state, and local education and community initiatives. While at SUNY Albany, I took advantage of the opportunity to take research design and methodology courses and completed a masters degree in Educational Psychology and Methodology ( research track).

Before moving to the Capitol Region in 2005, We lived in Rochester, New York, for twenty years. I served as a co-pastor with my husband in a city Presbyterian church for seventeen of those twenty years.

For our last three years in Rochester, I returned to school and received my teacher certification in secondary social studies. I taught social studies as a long-term substitute in two different city high schools.

Both my years in the ministry and in public education were wonderful training for my "reinvention" as a program evaluator.   

I live in Chatham, Massachusetts, with my husband, Stewart. We have two grown children who live in Vermont and Quebec, Canada, and six grandchildren.

[1] Jarvis, P. (2020). Company of one: Why staying small is the next big thing for business. Houghton Mifflin.