Who We Are
Core Team
Geri Lynn Peak is Chief Insight Facilitator at Two Gems Consulting Services. She and her associates work to strengthen community-based, regional, national and international programs through evaluation, training and technical support. She seeks to shine light into the dark corners of program practice to promote true understanding by: 1) asking critical questions with curiosity and compassion; 2) "listening" to what is learned through diverse approaches to gathering and mining data with openness and detachment; and 3) presenting that wisdom back to clients in accessible forms, trusting in them and helping them invoke their own wisdom and excellence to continually improve their efforts.
Two Gems practices evaluation based on a process Geri developed called Strategic Insight Facilitation, which involves gathering wisdom using customized participatory data collection activities to learn what stakeholders know about program operations, practices, outcomes, challenges and benefits and using those insights to drive evaluation questions and design.
Geri also owns a much neglected wearable arts business and performs dance, drumming and song on occasion as the community requires it.
Lisa Robinson provides data and analysis services as an Insight Facilitator with Two Gems Consulting Services and manages her own independent firm, LL Robinson Consulting Services, providing data management support for local and national programs and institutions. Lisa has expertise in quality assurance, database management and data quality control. She works directly with clients to help them maintain excellent data and deliver that information to support telling their stories.
Lisa received her Bachelor's degree in psychology and medical humanities from the University of Delaware.
Collaborators
(under revision)
Mindelyn Anderson, Ph.D., Founder and Principal at Mirror Group, LLC.
For 21 years, Dr. Anderson has researched social inequality and stratification, race and migration, education and social mobility, and health. Prior to founding Mirror Group, Mindelyn served as the Program Director of the Master’s of Science in Measurement and Evaluation at American University, Honors Faculty in Residence and Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northeastern University, and Marilyn Yarbrough Fellow at Kenyon College. Her scholarship has been supported by sponsors including the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Institutes of Health. Dr. Anderson has also held fellowships at American Institutes for Research and Mathematica Policy Research. She has conducted evaluations with and provided technical assistance and training for philanthropic, community-based, regional, national and international non-profit, for-profit, and educational organizations. Her utilization- focused, participatory evaluation practice is informed by Culturally-Responsive and Racial Equity Evaluation and values equity, systems change, and transformation as integral components of high quality consulting. In addition to leading evaluation, learning, and strategy at Mirror Group she currently serves as Chair-Elect of the American Evaluation Association Independent Consulting Topical Interest Group, Washington Evaluators' Co-Coordinator of Evaluators Without Borders, and Reviewer for the American Journal of Evaluation. Mindelyn’s happy place is co-creating the art and science of making data and evaluation meaningful, accessible, and actionable with learning organizations and the communities we at Mirror Group love!
Jadzia Floyd is an interdisciplinary artist. Although her main passion is drawing she works with a wide range of media from print, fiber, sculpture and performing arts. Her work often addresses race, culture and social justice.
She provides illustrations, design support and interactive gather spaces for Two Gems Consulting Services where she served in the past as an insight facilitator, conducting small project evaluations and supporting larger projects with data collection and management.
Jochebed G. Gayles, Ph.D., EPIS
Dr. Jochebed Gayles is the Lead Evaluation and Research Strategist at EPIS and an Assistant Research Professor within the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center.
At EPIS, she identifies innovative tools and methods for effectively and efficiently delivering coaching and supports, and technical assistance to individuals and organizations adopting and disseminating evidence-based practices, policies, and programs. She received her Ph.D. from Penn State, where she studied adolescent health and well-being. Before coming to EPIS, she was a postdoctoral fellow within the College of Nursing at Penn State where she studied biobehavioral correlates of health and well-being among adolescent females.
Dr. Gayles is an unapologetic social justice and equity human development scientist. Her programmatic line of scholarship includes research and its translation, evaluation, and advocacy. She engages in these through both scientific inquiry and real-world application and practice. Her evolving research focuses on youth health and well-being in cultural, social, developmental, and environmental contexts. Dr. Gayles’ research inquiries have been guided by ecological, social, and holistic developmental science theories for human development. Her attention to the dynamic multifaceted and multi-leveled nature of youth's ecologies and environments is informs methodological and equitable approaches to understand healthy and unhealthy youth developmental outcomes in context, considering culturally responsive and equitable implementation and evaluation of strategies and approaches targeting youth health and well-being.
Kimberly N. Harris, P.h.D., Founder Educa Consulting
Dr. Kimberly Harris is a social science evaluator and researcher conducting research, evaluation and assessment with a social justice lens. A 2020 Alumnus of the Annie E. Casey/Expanding the Bench Leaders in Equitable Evaluation ad Diversity (LEEAD), Dr. Harris is trained in culturally competent and culturally responsive & equitable research and evaluation approaches. She is also a member of the Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable (ACE) Evaluation Network. Kimberly is skilled in mixed, qualitative, and quantitative approaches- including quasi-experimental methodologies. Independent research projects included: postsecondary decision-making, workforce development, social capital, cultural capital, and student learning outcomes.
Maurissa Stone
Maurissa Stone Bass is a social entrepreneur and a community and organizational development expert who founded Iona Concepts, Inc., which serves as the umbrella organization for The Living Well Center for Social and Economic Vibrancy (TLW). Through TLW, Stone Bass has created a cooperative open-systems model to address social determinants of health using a trauma-responsive framework. Local, national, and Federal entities utilize her expertise to provide training, consulting, and coaching in a variety of key topical areas.
John Wesley Days, Jr
Susan Wolfe, Ph.D.
Organizational Collaborations Past and Present
With Gratitude: Past Insight Facilitators
Troy Steele
Amy Desai Graham , Ph.D.
Talia Floyd