Culturally responsible evaluation
Meet the team
Heather Conley, MA
Program Evaluator
Heather K. Conley brings over 20 years of experience supporting organizations across nonprofit, education, and public sectors to build cultures of curiosity, responsiveness, and community-centered change. Her work focuses on understanding the human dynamics behind programs by centering stakeholder voice, unpacking equity and power dynamics, and helping organizations strengthen alignment between their goals and activities.
Before joining Pivot Evaluation, Heather founded a consultancy dedicated to helping purpose-driven organizations design evaluation frameworks, strengthen partnerships, and translate data into actionable insight. She has led community assessments, facilitated participatory planning processes, and supported evaluation readiness initiatives for behavioral health agencies, grassroots organizations, and collective networks across New England and New Mexico.
Heather holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and advanced training in human-centered design, change theory, and systems thinking. She is guided by curiosity, empathy, and a belief that authentic relationships and shared learning drive lasting social change.
Rose Matzkin, MPH
Senior Evaluator
Rose Matzkin received her Master of Public Health from Claremont Graduate University, and joined Pivot as a Program Evaluator in 2020. Her professional experience is grounded in community health advocacy, focusing on behavioral health initiatives that encourage individuals and organizations to thrive.
At Pivot, Rose has contributed to numerous diverse evaluation projects, leading activities with clients including local nonprofits, county and state agencies, and school districts across the country. She excels in developing human-centered evaluation instruments, conducting qualitative methods including key insight analysis and client capacity-building, and applying systems thinking to strategic planning. Rose enjoys managing projects and fostering communication and creative collaboration across Pivot and its partners in evaluation.
Curtis J. Mearns, Ph.D.
Founder, Senior Evaluator
Curt Mearns is the senior researcher and evaluator at Pivot Evaluation. Although he received his Ph.D. in general experimental psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, he is formally trained in program evaluation. He has 30 years of experience in program evaluation and behavioral research.
Curt’s research design experience spans perception, cognitive and social psychology, animal behavior, education, and various quasi-experimental designs for nonprofit and governmental agencies. He has provided evaluation services in the following fields:
- Education including school reform, reading instruction, math instruction, special education, and professional development
- Public Health including substance abuse and suicide prevention, and youth offender socialization projects
- Environment including the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Game
Curt’s evaluation designs often use both quantitative and qualitative elements to develop valid and generalizable conclusions from data collection efforts. He listens to stakeholders concerns to design program evaluations that help decision-makers see their next steps.
Tamara Vasquez
Executive Assistant
Tamara supports the organization's daily operations. Her responsibilities include documenting internal procedures and facilitating their performance such as onboarding new employees, overseeing financial reporting and deadlines, and managing inventory control. She also manages every aspect of technology including licensing, PC setup, software installation, security, and data entry. She anticipates team needs and often offers solutions before the team identifies challenges. Previous experiences directly inform her work today as an Executive Assistant, where attention to detail, effective communication, and operational oversight are essential to ensuring internal operations run smoothly and efficiently.
Bronwyn Neeser, PsyD
Associate Collaborator
Dr. Neeser received her doctorate in psychology in 2020 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of New Mexico where she specialized in forensic psychology and mental health policy. While her policy work began back in 2011 during her masters program, upon completion of her doctoral fellowship she immediately began working for the state of New Mexico addressing their forensic mental health system to include competency to stand trial evaluations and more broadly mental health services within the justice system. She has since provided policy consulting on the local, state, and national levels.
Hive Consulting Firm, LLC
Hiveconsultingfirm.org
We believe in
Prioritizing relationships with clients, exploring social dynamics among service recipients, and illuminating power and equity imbalances.
Facilitating transparent communication and active follow-through to help organizations build internal capacity and increase service population agency.
Practicing cultural curiosity and humility.
Tailoring methods to collect contextually meaningful data, disaggregating demographics to amplify underheard voices, and validating our findings with statistical rigor.
Enacting the cultural competence professional standards of the American Evaluation Association and guidance from related organizations including the Kellogg Foundation resources on Doing Evaluation In Service Of Racial Equity and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commitment and operationalization. Pivot is committed to the process of “peeling the onion,” continuously learning from, and growing with, the communities we serve.