Louise Inman is a Principal Consultant at The Matrix Knowledge Group. Louise spent a year in the London office leading the Social Exclusion team before moving to Washington DC to establish the US health practice. Louise has managed health and social care projects for a range of UK and US clients including the National Health Service Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHS II) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Louise’s expertise spans a diverse portfolio including strategic consultancy, technical assistance, research and evaluation, performance management and software development.

Prior to joining Matrix, Louise was Senior Policy Advisor for Turning Point, the UK’s largest non-profit provider of health and social care for disadvantaged populations, specializing in substance abuse, mental health, criminal justice and homelessness.

Ben Vivari is a Principal Consultant at Matrix Knowledge Group International. Working out of the Washington DC office, Ben leads Matrix’s efforts in the US Higher Education market. Ben has overseen the design and development of a number of web-based performance reporting tools related to US education, with clients including the Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research. Ben is also the Program Manager at College Measures, a joint venture between Matrix and the American Institutes for Research, which is committed to informing and improving the higher education decision-making process for students, parents, and policy makers.

Prior to joining Matrix, Ben consulted for international clients looking at the intersection of the public and private sectors in the US. He holds an MBA in Strategic Management and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Leila Gonzales is the Data Analyst for the North American office and works on higher education projects. Prior to joining Matrix, Leila worked on domestic and international projects as the workforce data analyst for the American Geosciences Institute, a non-profit organization that serves the geoscience profession.

Leila holds a Doctorate in Physical Geography from University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Spanish from Regis University.

Jacqueline Mallender is CEO and a co-founder of Matrix Knowledge Group. Throughout the majority of her 25-year career, she has provided strategic policy recommendations to government agencies in the health and welfare sectors. She has a track record of solving complex problems for customers through her deep sector experience coupled with rigorous analysis and effective engagement with stakeholders.

Jacque participates in a variety of international research-related networks, each dedicated to furthering evidence-based decision-making. She is an active participant in the joint Campbell and Cochrane Economics Methods Group and the Campbell Crime and Justice Coordinating Group.

Usman is a public policy specialist, with twenty years’ experience including more than fifteen years working internationally. A founder shareholder and member of Matrix’s Board, Usman is Managing Director of Matrix Insight, the European Public Policy Consultancy of the Matrix Knowledge Group. Core roles include strategic leadership, project direction, thought leadership, client relationship management, corporate development, business development and team leadership. Usman’s has directed projects for clients including the DG Sanco, DG Just, DG Home, DG Enterprise as well as the European Parliament. In the UK clients have included The Prime Ministers Strategy Unit, the Department of Health, the Home Office as well as numerous local statutory and not for profit agencies.

Tony Munton leads the company’s Evidence Reviews and Evaluations team. He also serves as an internal consultant regarding measurement and evaluation methodologies.

Tony is a Chartered Psychologist with more than 20 years experience in undertaking policy research for central and local government. Prior to his position at Matrix Knowledge Group, he worked with the UK Ministry of Justice at the UK Home Office in the United Kingdom as an Assistant Director in the Research, Development and Statistics Division.

Tony graduated with a PhD from Leeds University and he has authored or co-authored over 50 journal articles and books.

Andy joined Matrix in July 2001, after 10 years as an NHS manager and a marketing role in a multinational pharmaceutical company. He has a background in management, science and technology and is responsible for the leadership and commercial performance of Matrix Decisions.

During Andy’s time at Matrix he has successfully led the health and substance misuse consultancy teams, and delivered some of Matrix’s largest research and consultancy assignments for governments and industry in the UK and internationally. He has published many articles in a range of areas including innovation, public health and organisational performance improvement.

Dr Kevin Marsh is Chief Economist at The Matrix Knowledge Group. His research interests include the economic evaluation of public policy, in particular health and criminal justice interventions. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Bath, specialising in monetary techniques for valuing environmental resources. Kevin joined Matrix in 2003 following a year at the Social Disadvantage Research Centre, Oxford University. Kevin is an active member of the Campbell and Cochrane Economic Methods Group, and contributes to methodological development in the field of economic evaluation.

Paul Dolan provides guidance on analytical methods employed by the company . He is also a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School where his more recent work has focused on the theory and practice of measuring individual and community well-being.

Paul is recognized as one of the world’s leading health economists, and he received the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Economics in 2002. He has over 80 peer-reviewed journal publications in leading economics, health, and social science journals and has secured research grants from a range of funding bodies.

Dr Myriam Lugon is a healthcare consultant with a national profile, specialising in the development of quality systems and clinical services. She has worked on a range of projects supporting development of clinical and organisational strategies for both providers and commissioners.

Her work in service reconfiguration has ranged from individual specialties to whole systems, and her experience of facilitating organisational development has ranged from individual clinical directorates, through to large, multi-site Foundation trusts, always helping the leadership teams to focus on evidence to steer a clear way forward for both the organisational design and the clinical priorities.

David Thomas is Associate Partner for The Matrix Knowledge Group. He is a highly experienced healthcare manager who has operated at executive board director level for twenty years in the NHS (major acute Trusts) and in Management Consultancy firms. He has a comprehensive economics based strategic and operational management track record. During his career, he has worked on over 250 major health care projects and has gained significant international health care experience in the US, India and the Far East.

Prof David Welbourn is Associate Partner for The Matrix Knowledge Group, focusing on all aspects of organisational performance and health informatics. He is able to offer specialist expertise in Information Governance and the practical aspects of ensuring that the adoption of information solutions focuses on realisable benefits. His research interests focus on bringing whole systems thinking to the development of more appropriate management and organisational models.

Jeremy Collins leads the company’s software development initiatives and plays a key role in working with customers to support the development and delivery of informatics solutions.

Jeremy has over 15 years of experience developing software solutions and tools for a wide range of private and public sector organizations. He has delivered web-based and desktop applications in many programming languages, is well versed in web development standards, and is an advocate for using agile software development methodologies.

CollegeMeasures.org provides key outcome measures for 1,576 four-year public and private colleges in the US. The website makes it simple to strategically evaluate the performance of colleges and state systems in order to identify areas for further analysis and focus. Scenario modeling tools are included which make it easy to set targets using comparative data and conduct “what if” analyses in order to see the impacts of potential changes in performance.

The website focuses on seven key outcomes measures. These include: graduation rates, first-year retention rates, education-related cost per student, cost per degree, student loan default rates, and the ratio of student loan payments to earnings for recent graduates. In addition, we created a measure for “cost of attrition” which quantifies the amount of money a college spends to educate first-year undergraduate students (first-time, full-time) who do not begin a second year. Further detailed data is provided for each of the seven measures.

The Early Warning System (EWS) Tool v2.0 is an Excel-based tool that enables schools and districts to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out of high school and to monitor these students’ responses to interventions. A redesigned and enhanced adaptation of the National High School Center’s original Early Warning System Tool v1.0, released in 2008, the new tool has enhanced functionality and features, including the capability to: customize the tool settings; modify indicator thresholds; integrate pre–high school indicators; import student-level data; assign interventions to students; and produce student- and school-level summary reports.

In addition to a nationally-available version of the EWS, Matrix has also developed customized versions upon request for certain states. Matrix is continuing to work with the National High School Center to develop the next version of the Early Warning System in 2011.