Tosin Shenbanjo

Tosin Shenbanjo specializes in formative, qualitative, and implementation research and evaluation. Her work aims to assess and improve programs and policies seeking to promote well-being, healthy development, and equity for communities of color and people who experience low incomes.

Since joining Mathematica in 2019, Shenbanjo has helped lead and support qualitative, mixed-method, and technical assistance efforts for federal, state and local, and foundation projects. She led an implementation study of Agape Child & Family Services’ 2Gen program, and she currently manages a survey study focused on participants’ experiences in one of Agape’s programs. Through a related effort funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Shenbanjo deputy directs a technical assistance project that uses the Learn, Innovate, Improve framework; stakeholder partnerships; and race, equity, and inclusion principles to help Agape strengthen and adapt two other 2Gen programs. Previously, Shenbanjo helped lead a supplemental implementation study for the five-year national evaluation of the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. For this study, Shenbanjo used qualitative methods to understand how a group of youth-serving providers continued operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how government agencies supported these efforts. Currently, she is helping to collect data and design and carry out an analysis focused on implementation of the Center for Native Child and Family Resilience (the Center), a partnership focused on preventing child maltreatment in American Indian/Alaska Native communities. This evaluation uses culturally responsive, equity-based methods to understand how the Center is supporting communities, and it identifies the Center’s key accomplishments, opportunities, and successes.

Before joining Mathematica, Shenbanjo supported and conducted research focused on child and youth development and education. She has served as a research coordinator for a child development study, an education research analyst at a nonprofit research and policy organization, a high school Spanish teacher, and a middle school teaching associate. Shenbanjo received her M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and her B.A. in psychology, with honors, and Spanish from Case Western Reserve University.