Annalisa Mastri

Annalisa Mastri helps public programs and community-based organizations improve their services and ultimately their clients’ outcomes. She does this by conducting research, making her own and others’ research findings actionable for practitioners, and teaching others how to use evidence in their decision making. As the principal investigator for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Evidence Capacity Support project, she led a literature review to identify and categorize the dimensions of evidence capacity, or the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and resources that support an organization’s ability to build and use evidence to inform its work. The project team developed a framework and used it to guide engagements with several program offices in ACF that work to strengthen one or more components of evidence capacity.

In a similar vein, Mastri directs the Supporting Evaluation Efforts for Demonstrations in Self-Sufficiency project for ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. For this project, she leads a team of coaches working with 20 grant recipients to build their evidence capacity. This involves delivering trainings on research methods that are accessible for non-researchers, developing worksheets and other resources that walk practitioners step-by-step through the research process, and providing coaching and support directly to grant recipients.

In addition, Mastri has extensive experience designing and conducting non-experimental and experimental research. She is the project director of the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies (NextGen) Project, a multi-site randomized controlled trial of programs for people facing multiple employment barriers, including disabilities and chronic health issues.

Mastri strives to incorporate principles of equity into all her work, from project conception through execution. For the NextGen Project, she and colleagues worked with a consultant in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) to embed CREE approaches throughout the project. She co-authored a brief highlighting the opportunities and challenges of incorporating CREE in federally funded evaluations.

Mastri, who joined Mathematica in 2007, previously served as principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research and ACF’s Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review. She holds a Ph.D. in education economics from Stanford University.