Staff
Jon Hobbs, Ph.D., President ETI
jhobbs@eticonsulting.org
Dr. Hobbs is an educational psychologist with broad experience working as a clinician, educator, and researcher. He has over a decade of experience conducting education, health, and social service program evaluations for local, state, and national organizations. He has served as principle investigator on multi-year evaluations of grants for the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education (Investing in Innovation Fund, “i3”; Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, “FIPSE”). Dr. Hobbs has lead large-scale research projects for state agencies such as the California Public Utilities Commission (evaluations of a state-wide telecommunication education program), Utah State Office of Education (evaluations of state-wide educational technology school readiness programs) and Nevada (evaluation of state-wide virtual charter schools). Dr. Hobbs has developed expertise in studying the application of educational technology in early learning and instruction, but he has also studied other educational reform efforts, such as in the fields of geography education (National Geographic Society), environmental education (Nature Bridge), arts education (LAUSD Arts Education Branch), after school education (LAUSC Beyond the Bell Branch), and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM; California Science Center).
Dr. Hobbs started his career as a clinician working with patients in community mental health centers. He has treated patients with chronic and persistent mental health disorders, conducted outpatient child and family therapy and specialized in the treatment of childhood trauma. Prior to working in the mental health field, he ran a computer consulting business that focused on technology training for adults and children. His interest in new media and technology is a common thread that connects his clinical work with children to his current educational research focus. He developed an educational intervention that integrated attribution retraining with educational technology, and studied its effectiveness treating young students with behavioral programs (Hobbs, L.J. & Yan, Z, 2008). He continues to do basic research on behavioral science applications in cybersecurity and Internet safety, with applications for children and adults.
Dr. Hobbs has served as an adjunct professor with experience teaching courses in child and human development, psychology research methods, and testing and assessment. Throughout his professional experiences, he has worked with a wide variety of clients, including State Legislators, grant officers (Federal and State), non-profit and for profit leaders, and a wide variety of stakeholders, including at-risk populations. On his offtime, Dr. Hobbs enjoys wrenching on his old cars, surfing, spending time with his dogs, and poking fun at the upsurge of gluten-free bakeries in Los Angeles.
Allison Coordt, Ph.D., Senior Project Manager
acoordt@eticonsulting.org
Dr. Coordt joins ETI after 12 years in a corporate setting. Her work involved managing large scale research programs for prominent entertainment and tech brands, evaluating campaign effectiveness on consumer perceptions and behaviors. She specialized in kids and family consumer research keeping a pulse on market trends and helping brands understand how to communicate, message and engage with their youngest audiences. She brings rich experience partnering with clients to identify and define specific research needs, designing the appropriate methods and delivering results to key stakeholders and decision makers.
Joining ETI is a full circle transition for Dr. Coordt who began her career at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Evaluation. Her prior work involved understanding the implementation and impact of parental involvement initiatives designed to give parents better access to their child’s educational experience. Dr. Coordt also spent several years with the Clinic for the Behavioral Treatment of Children at UCLA, engaging in both 1:1 therapy as well as school site support. She has served as a teaching fellow at UCLA and part-time faculty member in the psychology department at LMU teaching upper division seminars in psychology and research methods.
In her spare time, she enjoys the beach, watching sports, books on tape and doing anything with her 2 teenage boys. Dr. Coordt has a Doctorate in Educational Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, all from UCLA.
Emma Rees, MPP, Senior Research Associate erees@eticonsulting.org
Ms. Rees plays a key supportive role in all phases of current evaluation projects, including data collection and processing, developing data visualizations for multiple audiences, and writing report sections. Prior to her work at ETI, she worked with various government agencies and conducted research on school voucher programs and municipal election processes. In her free time, Ms. Rees enjoys attending music festivals and sporting events. She is a diehard Dodgers fan, and can often be found at Dodger Stadium during baseball season. Ms. Rees received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Riverside in History and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from University of California, Irvine.
Clare Rose, Ed.D., Founder & Board of Directors
crose@eticonsulting.org
Dr. Rose launched ETI in 1974 and led evaluations of all major reform efforts instituted in education both locally and nationally. Her expertise includes programs for parent involvement, after-school and before school, school-to-work, workforce development, literacy, dropout prevention and youth alcohol and drug prevention. Under her guidance, ETI has gained national recognition for its high quality, technically difficult, and unbiased research in education and social policy. She is the author of many papers and presentations on evaluation, including the monograph The Practice of Evaluation, published by ERIC Clearinghouse on Tests, Measurement & Evaluation. Dr. Rose has a Doctorate in Higher Education and Evaluation, a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, all from UCLA.
Sandra Garcia, MPH, Evaluation Consultant sgarcia@eticonsulting.org
Ms. Garcia wears several different hats at ETI, all very fashionable but some still give her hat head. She has taken over as ETI’s social media guru, working to expand our online presence. In this capacity, she monitors relevant social media feeds and fosters relationships with stakeholders through online communication across a wide variety of platforms. She also acts as the website administrator for the ETI website, making sure that our current and potential clients have an accurate vision of our mission, goals, and work products. Ms. Garcia specializes in developing data visualizations in Tableau and Excel that easily communicate project findings, performing qualitative data analysis, and descriptive statistics. As a crucial member of the research team, she also assists staff through many different research activities, including: data collection, data entry, data analysis, writing report sections, and providing Spanish language translation for stakeholders. Ms. Garcia received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Melanie Overby, Ph.D., Evaluation Consultant
moverby@eticonsulting.org
Dr. Overby has led evaluations of schools, museums, professional development programs, and social programs. She specializes in mixed-method research that incorporates quantitative and qualitative data, such as student achievement data, interviews, and observations. As part of multi-year evaluations for the Utah Department of Education and the California Science Center, she has developed assessments, rubrics, and data collection procedures for both rural and urban settings. Dr. Overby completed a post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Education, where she investigated the formal and informal literacy practices of urban adolescents. She considers herself a formal-informal researcher, and her content expertise includes development across the lifespan, early literacy, informal learning, and museum education. She is ETI’s cultural ambassador, and has a deep appreciation for the arts and dining in Los Angeles and beyond. Dr. Overby holds a Doctorate in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Amherst College.
Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., Evaluation Consultant
Dr. Andrew Thomas will serve as a consultant to ETI during the study and be involved in project’s tasks related to evaluation design, measurement data collection and analysis. He has over 20 years of experience as a social science researcher and program evaluator, and has worked with state and federal government agencies, foundations, colleges and universities, private research firms and nonprofit agencies. He is experienced in managing multiple concurrent projects and tasks under tight timelines to produce responsive project deliverables on time and on budget. His skills include planning and conducting rigorous evaluations (quantitative studies involving quasi-experimental designs, qualitative studies using focus groups and case studies, and mixed methods designs), the development of assessment tools, and the design of advanced statistical analysis plans. Dr. Thomaswill work in collaboration with Dr. Jon Hobbs to conduct finalize the evaluation study design, develop data collection instruments, conduct analyses and prepare project deliverables.