Daniel Welsh

Daniel Welsh leads survey efforts, manages evaluation projects, and uses qualitative methods to inform data-driven decision making for human services programs and policies. He specializes in designing surveys and building evidence to support education and employment initiatives that improve opportunity and equity.

Welsh is currently project manager for multiple federally- and foundation-funded studies, including the Evaluation of Promise Neighborhoods and Full-Service Community Schools, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and the evaluation of a grant to the University of Arkansas establishing the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I3R), funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In addition to these roles, he recently served as a survey data collection lead on the Analysis of Middle School Math Systems study (funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), which examines how students—particularly those who are Black, Latinx, dual language learners, or experiencing poverty—engage with specific middle school math curricula. Welsh has led evidence reviews and landscape analyses of urban school districts and communities. He has also conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with participants of various employment and training programs.

As project manager for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation P–16 Community Investment initiative, Welsh managed the development of six public-facing resources and tools on place-based systems change, including a community-level self-assessment that he co-designed. He also designed an education provider staff survey and led qualitative data collection and analysis to understand the impact drivers of systems change. As a survey task lead for the implementation study of two transition work-based learning models for youth and young adults with disabilities, Vermont Linking Learning to Careers and Way2Work Maryland, Welsh managed student and parent surveys, led administrative data requests, and conducted interviews with program staff.

Before joining Mathematica, Welsh was a paralegal with the National Immigrant Justice Center, where he provided legal rights education and direct services to unaccompanied immigrant children. He also completed an AmeriCorps year of service at the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, where he led workers’ rights trainings and workshops for immigrants and workers with low incomes. Welsh holds a B.A. in anthropology and Spanish from DePauw University and certificates in applied project management and Agile practices from Northwestern University.