The BTW Team

Ellen Irie
Principal
eirie@btw.informingchange.com
Ellen Irie is the Principal of BTW informing change. She has worked as a consultant to nonprofits and philanthropy since 1991, directing and managing applied research, evaluation and planning projects. Ellen has a keen interest and expertise in issues of organizational effectiveness, health prevention and education, service and volunteerism and nonprofit financial systems development. Ellen currently leads BTW’s evaluations of the Low Income Investment Fund’s ABCD Initiative, the Tides Center and REDF. For a number of years as part of her work at BTW, Ellen served as the finance manager for PACE-Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement. Ellen has held many key management positions at BTW since its inception, including serving as the firm’s chief operating officer for three years and designing the company’s quality control standards.
 
Prior to joining BTW, Ellen consulted for nonprofits, philanthropy and public agencies on social service research and social marketing projects with Harder+Company Community Research and Communication Sciences Group.
 
Ellen holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Government from Cornell University. Ellen is an active volunteer in the Rosa Parks School PTA and served on the board of the Japanese Community Youth Council for many years.

Lande Ajose
Managing Director
lajose@btw.informingchange.com
Lande Ajose has been managing projects in the nonprofit and philanthropic communities since 1990. As Managing Director of BTW, she divides her time between providing internal organizational leadership and directing client work. For client engagements she draws on her expertise in research, evaluation, analysis, and communication to design and direct complex organizational planning and evaluations related to poverty and educational issues. Lande is currently directing evaluation work for a wide variety of clients, including the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Advancement Project and the Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative.
 
Prior to joining BTW, Lande worked at MDRC where she directed a comprehensive evaluation of the Lumina Foundation’s signature Achieving the Dream Initiative, a multi-million dollar, multi-year effort to transform the nation’s community colleges and increase student outcomes for community college students. In addition to conducting large scale evaluations for philanthropic organizations, she also has conducted evaluations for the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and is adept at using data to inform decision making. Her professional experiences in philanthropy include several years at the James Irvine Foundation and, much earlier in her career, with the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers where she brought together grantmakers and public officials to advance common policy interests.
 
Lande has extensive experience serving on nonprofit and community boards and currently serves as a board member with REDF (formerly the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund). She is a past board member of the San Francisco University High School, Common Sense California, the Coro Center for Civic Leadership and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and has developed a special expertise in issues of governance, executive leadership and organizational alignment.
 
Lande earned her B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, an M.A. in Urban Planning from the School of Public Affairs, University of California at Los Angeles and holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kim Ammann Howard
Director of Evaluation & Organizational Learning
kahoward@btw.informingchange.com
Since 1986, Kim Ammann Howard has been designing, conducting and implementing strategic assessments to support organizational capacity building; program, organizational and initiative evaluations; and applied research across a range of content areas including leadership development, organizational effectiveness, public policy, education, social justice and public health. Her leadership roles at BTW include serving as project director for complex evaluation projects, providing support and guidance to BTW project teams on issues of design and methodology and managing BTW's overall organizational learning. Some current projects that she is directing at BTW include the following evaluations: the Tides and The California Endowment’s Community Clinics Initiative, the Blue Shield Foundation of California’s Clinic Leadership Institute and The Irvine Foundation’s Fund for Leadership Advancement. Previous positions include directing public health research and evaluation projects at the Stanford University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, as well as staffing direct service provider coalitions for public policy and service delivery improvement through the Contra Costa County’s Health Services Department. Key evaluations in these roles include the Packard and Gates Foundations’ Population Health Leadership Programs, The California Wellness Foundation’s Violence Prevention Initiative, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation’s organizational capacity initiative of substance abuse treatment clinics and the California Department of Health Services Statewide Tobacco Control Initiative. Kim enjoys collaborative work and learning with diverse groups in a variety of settings including nonprofit community-based, philanthropic and intermediary organizations as well as government and academic institutions at the local, state, national and international levels.
 
Most recently Kim wrote a chapter about evaluating leadership development for social change for the newly released Jossey-Bass published Handbook of Leadership Development Evaluation. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley.

Gail Camacho
Director of Finance & Administration
gcamacho@btw.informingchange.com
As Director of Finance & Administration, Gail Camacho provides financial management, operational planning and administrative expertise to BTW. Since 2000, her professional focus has been working with organizations dedicated to providing high quality services to underserved populations. Gail has years of experience working in nonprofit administration beginning as the Contract Compliance and Evaluation Coordinator at the YWCA of San Diego and then serving as Director of Finance & Administration at the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in Oakland. At MOCHA, she oversaw human resources for over 50 employees, established financial policies and procedures, created efficient administrative systems, provided facility management, implemented operational measures to ensure sustainability, served as Interim Executive Director and assisted with organizational planning and board relations. Most recently she assisted with the completion of their three-year strategic plan, in which she designed and implemented metrics and data collection systems to measure financial stability and program deliverables in alignment with their goals. Gail holds a BA in Third World Studies and Health Care-Social Issues from the University of California, San Diego.

Rayna Caplan
Senior Associate
rcaplan@btw.informingchange.com
Rayna Caplan has been applying her expertise in evaluation and applied research with clients in the nonprofit, philanthropic and public sectors for over 12 years. Her work spans a range of content areas including public health, youth development, education, leadership development, social enterprise and workforce development. As a Senior Associate and Project Manager at BTW informing change, Rayna manages project teams and budgets and carries out complex qualitative and quantitative research, organizational planning and evaluation projects. She specializes in developing program theories of change, designing evaluation plans, determining data collection methodology and tools and analyzing information to inform client practice. Rayna strives to communicate complex information in easy-to-understand formats, maximizing both the accessibility and utility of data. Before joining BTW in 2001, Rayna worked for the New England Research Institutes in Boston and for Freeman, Sullivan & Co. and the Department of Public Health in San Francisco. Rayna holds a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a B.A. in Health and Society and Psychology from the University of Rochester.

Tina Cheplick
Senior Associate
tcheplick@btw.informingchange.com
Tina Cheplick has worked in planning and organizational development for nonprofits since 1978. Tina provides management support across a range of planning and organizational development projects, including the Houston-based Zip Code Assistance Ministries organizational development project. Tina also serves as a member of the BTW management team and coordinates product development and quality control. Prior to joining BTW, Tina organized statewide forums on service and volunteerism, served as the lead consultant for the California After-School Service Learning Initiative and conducted training in community partnerships for schools and community organizations. For 10 years she was the executive director of the Volunteer Center of Marin (San Rafael, California), and prior to that was a national program consultant for the national office of the Girl Scouts of the USA, designing and conducting trainings in program development and cross-cultural issues. She received a Master of Arts in Modern Foreign Languages from Lehigh University and a B.A. in French and Russian Studies from Muhlenberg College.

Kris Helé
Senior Associate
khele@btw.informingchange.com
Kris Helé, a Senior Associate at BTW informing change, develops evaluation plans, designs data collection tools, and leads data collection and analysis efforts for both quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation projects. In addition, Kris serves as the project manager for several BTW projects, applying a keen eye to task and budget management and overall quality assurance. Her research and evaluation interests span a range of content areas, including health, social welfare, education, workforce development and social outcomes measurement. Prior to her work at BTW, Kris contributed her expertise to program evaluations, training manuals, policy initiatives, survey research projects and program plans for community agencies. She previously worked at the Hawaii Outcomes Institute, writing comprehensive state and county health status profiles; and at the Center for Community Wellness (now Health Research for Action), managing, analyzing and reporting on evaluation data for an after-school program. Kris also has considerable direct service experience including reproductive health education, counseling, psychosocial assessments and case management. In addition, she is proficient in Spanish. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, holding Masters Degrees in Social Welfare and Public Health, in addition to a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego.

Sara Lepore Dube
Associate
slepore.dube@btw.informingchange.com
In her career serving the independent sector, Sara has acquired expertise in conducting research and evaluation for non-profit, philanthropic and public sector clients. At BTW, Sara collects and analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, develops reports and presentations and manages timelines and budgets for a wide variety of projects. Sara is currently involved in designing evaluations for several education policy and advocacy organizations such as the Advancement Project, the EdVoice Institute for Research and Education and Justice Matters.
 
Prior to joining BTW, Sara analyzed service-learning, after-school and early education policies and programs to inform improvements in service delivery and programmatic quality. Sara also has considerable direct service experience; she managed the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s volunteer program and led an AmeriCorps national service team that worked with Head Start children’s programs.
 
Sara holds an M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a double B.A. in Child Development and History from Tufts University.

Sheila Nickolopoulos
Associate
snick@btw.informingchange.com
As Associate, Sheila is involved in both the technical and tactical aspects of evaluations, collecting and analyzing data and identifying strategies for foundation investments and programmatic refinements. She conducts data collection and analysis for clients such as the Irvine Foundation Fund, the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Low Income Investment Fund. She also works with clients such as the Latino Issues Forum on the theory of change processes to strengthen their operations and evaluation plans. Sheila has a range of content expertise, including arts and cultural institutions, informal education, economic development and sustainable communities. Prior to joining BTW, Sheila worked for a range of organizations including NOVA, a Silicon Valley workforce development agency; Greenbelt Alliance; and several museums, including San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
 
Sheila holds a Masters Degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and a double B.A. in Urban Studies and Italian Studies from Brown University. Sheila was a Coro Community Fellow and has served on the board of a regional outdoor education organization since 2003.

Regina Sheridan
Associate
rsheridan@btw.informingchange.com
Regina Sheridan, an Associate at BTW informing change, uses her analytic and organizational skills to gather and synthesize information for a number of complex, multi-year projects at BTW. She administers many of BTW’s online and print surveys, analyzes the quantitative data and produces summaries and graphic displays that are easy to understand. As a member of the Community Clinics Initiative and ABCD Initiative evaluation teams she organizes and analyzes large volumes of secondary data related to the multiple funding areas of the initiatives. She also works on many of BTW’s evaluations of public health initiatives and leadership development programs.

Prior to her work with BTW, Regina worked in media marketing in San Francisco and managed administrative projects at a legal office in Santa Cruz. She also lived in South Africa for a year where she studied the local politics and worked at a program for AIDS orphans in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Regina graduated with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in sociology and a minor in politics.

Cinnamon Daniel
Associate/Field Supervisor
cdaniel@btw.informingchange.com
Cinnamon Daniel serves as BTW’s Field Supervisor for in-depth client interviews. This includes managing the ongoing field interviews that BTW conducts for REDF to assess REDF’s social return on investment. Cinnamon is a Unitarian Universalist minister who has served a number of large churches throughout the country, most recently at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. She is also a pastoral counselor and a doctoral student. She has a M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a B.A. from Princeton University.

Lauren Callahan
Publications Coordinator
lcallahan@btw.informingchange.com
As a Publications Coordinator at BTW informing change, Lauren Callahan brings strong administrative skills to all of BTW’s projects. Her responsibilities range from data entry and coordinating mailings to formatting and copyediting company materials. Prior to joining BTW, Lauren worked as the publisher of burntORANGE magazine, the official student magazine of the University of Texas at Austin, where she managed the advertising, circulation and production staffs and secured grants for the magazine’s publication. She also served as a research assistant for an academic publication sponsored by the Undergraduate Mentor Fellowship Program at UT. While completing her undergraduate degrees, Lauren continued her passion for service by interning in the offices of Texas State Representative Bob Griggs, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and former presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John Edwards. She also has a background in broadcast media. Lauren holds a B.S. in Communication Studies: Political Communication and a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Karissa Yee
Project Assistant
kyee@btw.informingchange.com
Karissa Yee brings strong organizational skills and research support to BTW's client projects. A graduate of American University with a B.A. in Political Science, she was a Congressional intern for current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a legislative intern for the Council of the Great City Schools where she organized and analyzed data about the federal No Child Left Behind program. Karissa built her research skills as a visiting scholar in the University of Michigan Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research program. An active citizen of the Bay Area, Karissa has served terms on the San Francisco Board of Education and the San Francisco Youth Commission. She also taught English classes in Suzhou, China.

Malia Armstrong
Administrative Assistant
marmstrong@btw.informingchange.com
As BTW’s administrative assistant, Malia Armstrong applies her communication, organization and problem-solving skills to managing the day-to-day operations of our office and providing administrative, financial and executive support to our staff. Prior to working at BTW, Malia worked at Golden Gate University in Walnut Creek and with UC Santa Cruz’s Co-Curricular Programs Office where she organized programs for guest speakers and other campus events. She brings additional experience in youth development, having worked with Friday Night Live drug and alcohol prevention program for the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency. Malia holds a B.A. in Community Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.