Mathematica's New Consulting Fellows Program to Deliver Evidence and Drive Results

Mathematica today announced the launch of its Consulting Fellows program, a new initiative to foster partnerships with trusted, top-tier subject matter experts across sectors to drive evidence and insights for clients.

“Each fellow’s expertise will enhance Mathematica’s existing capabilities so we can help our clients find the answers they need, no matter the challenges they’re facing,” said Chris Trenholm, executive vice president and chief business officer of Mathematica. “Our new Consulting Fellows program presents an exciting opportunity for us to collaborate with distinguished experts in their respective fields so we can tap into their unique perspectives and experiences to deliver results.”

At launch, the Consulting Fellows program welcomes four fellows who will collaborate on Mathematica’s work related to climate change, health, and global health and human services:

Climate Change

• Dr. Michael Carter is a distinguished professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis. He is also the director of the BASIS Markets, Risk and Resilience Innovation Lab and the Resilience+ Innovation Facility. Dr. Carter’s current research projects examine poverty dynamics and productive social safety nets; evaluate interventions to boost small farm uptake of improved technologies; and feature a suite of projects that design, pilot, and evaluate weather-based index insurance contracts to alleviate chronic poverty and deepen agricultural and rural financial markets. Carter is an elected fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, and the American Agricultural Economics Association.
  
  “Dr. Carter’s groundbreaking research on poverty dynamics, risk management, and the economics of asset accumulation is directly relevant to understanding how we can enhance peoples’ climate resilience,” said Tulika Narayan, vice president of Mathematica’s climate change practice. “We are collaborating with him on applying a rigorous approach to measuring climate resilience among farmers across multiple countries in Africa. We look forward to more collaborations that combine our expertise to provide the best evidence for improving climate adaptation in agriculture.”
• Dr. Ritvik Sahajpal is an associate research professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences and the crop condition co-lead at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Harvest and NASA Acres. He was previously a member of the data advisory council at the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). Dr. Sahajpal’s research expertise is broadly related to (1) developing an understanding of how sustainable practices can help mitigate climate change impacts on agriculture using Earth observation data to monitor crop yields from field to global scales; (2) modeling the impacts of conservative agriculture practices on soil health and crop yield; and (3) mapping land use and land cover change and modeling their impacts on the carbon-climate system. Dr. Sahajpal uses both machine learning and data-driven agro-ecosystem modeling techniques in his work. His research has been funded by NASA, FFAR, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and published in journals such as Nature, Environmental Research Letters, Geoscientific Model Development, and Science of the Total Environment.
  
  “Dr. Sahajpal’s expertise in using Earth observation data to measure agricultural outcomes transforms how we can design and evaluate climate programs,” said Narayan. “Through our collaboration, we look to combine Mathematica’s social science and policy analysis expertise with Dr. Sahajpal’s in-depth knowledge of science-based climate data to better understand agriculture’s vulnerability to climate and advance the adoption of climate-resilient agricultural practices.”

Global

• Dr. Alexander Rothkopf is the managing director of Leap Ahead GmbH. Dr. Rothkopf’s research, policy advisory, and consulting work focuses on supply chains, supply disruptions, and resilience, as well as market insights and incentives. He works with the private sector, public entities, global health nonprofits, and disaster response organizations. He is particularly passionate about data-driven decision making. Using small or very large data sets, he has provided insights to solve critical questions and explore new and innovative pathways for organizations to manage uncertainty, exceed stakeholder expectations, and save lives.
  
  “Dr. Rothkopf has substantial knowledge and a long track record of designing advanced data analytics methods and models to evaluate the impact of unforeseen events, and he’s an expert in applying a market-based lens to evidence generation,” said Jeff Bernson, senior vice president and general manager of Mathematica’s Global practice. “We look forward to collaborating with and learning from Dr. Rothkopf to enhance the work we do to strengthen evidence building across the program lifecycle.”

Health

• Walter Linde-Zwirble is the chief data scientist at Trexin. He is a nationally recognized data scientist and analytics industry thought leader with more than 30 years of experience in health outcomes and data science research. Linde-Zwirble has analyzed and modeled most aspects of health care delivery across all health care industry segments and has developed health state measures and prognostic measures for improved communication between stakeholders. He has also created simulations of the Medicare payment system, calculated cost-to-charge ratios, and modeled the impact of managed care on hospital outcomes.
  
  “Walter Linde-Zwirble is a truly remarkable data scientist who not only understands how to take data and turn them into action-oriented information—he also has a substantial understanding of the complexity of the health care system needed to inform data analysis,” said Ngan MacDonald, director of data innovations at Mathematica. “Through our partnership, we will work to address the many problems that arise in health care due to lack and misunderstanding of data.”

Mathematica will continue to grow its Consulting Fellows program as new opportunities arise. Learn more about the program.