CONSULTANTS

Luke Gerber

Director of Research and Evaluation,
Children’s Health Fund

Luke Gerber consults on administration data analysis and child welfare issues. He has over 5 years of experience partnering with public, private, and non-profit agencies to support services for children and families and served as Director of Data Analytics at Action Research. His expertise includes program evaluation, performance measurement, data analysis and visualization, qualitative research, social services and child welfare, and project management.

Dr. Joel Miller

Associate Professor, Rutgers University
School of Criminology.

Dr. Miller teaches graduate-level advanced research methods courses, has published widely on data and analysis methods, has expertise in juvenile justice and child welfare, and has consulted with Action Research on methods and substantive issues for several years. He received his BA from Oxford and his MA and PhD from Surrey University.

Yana Mayevskaya

Senior Program Officer, Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network

Yana Mayevskaya previously worked with Action Research as a Research Associate and now consults on administrative data analysis. For over 10 years, Yana has worked with national, international, and academic institutions doing program management and mixed-methods research to improve social services for children and families. She is committed to work that respects the agency of children and young people and her expertise includes qualitative research and project management. Yana has a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies/Biology from UC Santa Cruz and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. 

Oliver Ponce

Oliver Ponce is a sociologist interested in the intersection of race, income inequality, and public health outcomes. Oliver consults on Action Research’s monitoring work analyzing administrative data. His career to date has seen him working with Action Research and the Corner Health Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he researched health disparities among the Latino population of Washtenaw County. Oliver is both a Posse Scholar and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Undergraduate Public Health Scholar (CUPS). He received his B.A. in Sociology from Colby College in 2015 and is currently pursuing his M.S. in Public Policy at NYU Wagner.

Dr. Yuk (Erica) Pang

Research Area Specialist Senior,
Survey Research Center - Youth and Social Issues, University of Michigan

Erica Pang is a human development and family studies researcher interested in the role of race, class, and gender among families of color, as well as adolescent and young adulthood development.  Erica consults with Action Research on New York City Administration for Children’s Services projects to improve the recruitment, training, support, and retention of New York City foster caregivers.  She also works on evaluating the effects of interdisciplinary approaches to legal representation for parents involved in child abuse and neglect cases, and data analyses in support of child welfare class action litigation in Oklahoma.  Erica is currently a Senior Research Area Specialist at the University of Michigan and has prior experience as a graduate research assistant at the Iowa State University Child Welfare Research and Training Project while obtaining her doctorate.  She conducted training evaluations trainings and contributed to a study of the AmeriCorps Partnering to Protect Children (APPC) program in Iowa.  She received her B.S. in Psychology, M.S. and PhD. in Human Development and Family Studies from Iowa State University.