Mathematica is pleased to announce the appointment of two new senior fellows, Sally Atkins-Burnett and Carol Irvin, nationally recognized experts in program evaluation and policy analysis. Their contributions to public policy research continuously help us inform policy and program decisions.
Sally Atkins-Burnett has created numerous assessments and surveys to measure early childhood and K–8 outcomes and classroom quality and instruction. She has worked on several large-scale national studies and is currently principal investigator on four major studies, including the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study: 2017. Author of numerous publications and presentations about screening, assessment, and children with disabilities, she recently wrote an invited paper for the National Academies of Science in addition to several book chapters. She served as a reviewer for the Institutes of Medicine and the National Research Council; currently, she is on the editorial review board of the Journal of Early Intervention. Before joining Mathematica in 2006, Atkins-Burnett was a researcher and faculty member at the University of Michigan and the University of Toledo.
“Sally is an outstanding technical leader whose work in measurement development has been highly influential in the education and child development fields,” said Deborah Reed, senior vice president and director of human services research. “Her new measure to assess the quality of caregiver-child interactions for infants and toddlers has gained recognition as a major contribution to the field.”
Carol Irvin is a nationally recognized expert in Medicaid policy, especially concerning long-term services and supports for frail older adults. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of public program interventions to improve care and coverage for low-income vulnerable populations, particularly people with disabling and chronic conditions. She has directed and served as principal investigator on many projects for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. She is currently directing the national evaluation of the Money Follows the Person demonstration, a Medicaid program that seeks to help states develop and strengthen approaches to transitioning people from institutional to community-based care. She is also directing a national evaluation of Medicaid Section 1115 demonstrations in the areas of managed long-term services and supports, alternative Medicaid expansions, Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment programs, and uncompensated care pools. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Pediatrics and Psychiatric Services. She serves on technical expert panels and is a frequent presenter at professional meetings sponsored by AcademyHealth and the National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities. Before joining Mathematica in 1998, Irvin was a researcher at Abt Associates.
“Carol is at the forefront of developing and implementing new methods for integrating traditional evaluation approaches with rapid-cycle feedback for real-time decision support,” said Christopher Trenholm, senior vice president and managing director of health research. "She is also an expert in adapting methodologies, products, and staffing to blend formative and summative evaluation methods with ongoing program monitoring.”
