People
Meet the CEP team.
Donovyn Pickler
Donovyn oversees designing, maintaining, and improving data tools and pipelines utilized by CEP. Prior to joining CEP in December 2022, Donovyn wore many hats from analytics platform engineer to robotics lab assistant, stagehand, and bartender. Outside of work,...
Senior Data Systems Engineer, Technology
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Doug Keller
Doug develops partnerships with educators that help them harness student and stakeholder feedback to accelerate improvement. Prior to joining YouthTruth in 2021, Doug helped to build a community for youth writing in New Orleans as the founding executive director of...
Partnerships Lead, YouthTruth
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Elisha Smith Arrillaga
Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Ph.D. manages CEP’s Research team, leading the creation, development, analysis, and release of various research projects and initiatives relevant to the philanthropic sector’s most pressing issues. Prior to CEP, Dr. Smith Arrillaga was a...
Vice President, Research
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Elissa Koh
Elissa helps the Client Services team foster an excellent experience for school and district clients during all stages of their engagement with YouthTruth. Prior to joining YouthTruth, Elissa worked in direct services as an advocate for domestic violence victims in...
Senior Coordinator, Client Services, YouthTruth
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Ellie Buteau
Ellie manages research projects and supports research design and analysis training and work across CEP’s teams. Ellie is managing CEP’s Big Gifts study, a three-year research project designed to understand how nonprofit organizations are using large, unrestricted...
Director of Research Projects and Special Advisor on Research Methodology and Analysis
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Emily Radwin
Emily analyzes data, writes reports, and leads creation and presentation of CEP’s benchmarking assessments. She helped develop CEP’s approach to supporting funders’ data collection and thoughtful use of demographic data. Emily works alongside funders to help them...
Manager, Assessment and Advisory Services
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Emily Yang
Emily supports the research team at CEP in designing studies, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, and writing reports. Prior to joining CEP in March 2022, Emily conducted academic research in nutrition policy and social services. During her fellowship at...
Senior Analyst, Research
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Emma Relle
Emma analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, writes reports, and provides assessment insight to CEP clients. Prior to joining CEP in July 2021, Emma graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Education. As an undergraduate, she...
Senior Analyst, Assessment and Advisory Services
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George Garcia
George assesses student feedback and assists in survey and report production at YouthTruth. Prior to joining YouthTruth in 2024, George mastered out of a Ph.D. program in economics at MIT. He has worked as a research fellow at Stanford Law School, Harvard,...
Analyst, YouthTruth
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Grace Nicolette
Grace oversees the organization’s partnerships, outreach efforts, fundraising, communications, and innovative programming. She is a co-host with CEP’s President Phil Buchanan of the widely acclaimed Giving Done Right podcast. Grace was formerly a client lead on CEP’s...
Vice President, Programming and External Relations
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Heather Smith
Heather helps schools across the country drive change through student and community feedback. Prior to joining YouthTruth, Heather developed and ran educational programming across diverse STEM learning spaces including building robust career pathways into the tech...
Manager of Partnerships, YouthTruth
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Jay Kustka
Jay works closely with the programming and external relations team to create, design, and update marketing materials for CEP. Jay has many years of experience in graphic design, having worked previously in Boston and London for R.R. Donnelly Financial and in New York...
Art Director, Programming and External Relations
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Jennifer de Forest
Jen has a lifelong passion for the art and science of school improvement. Prior to joining YouthTruth, Jen spent nearly a decade in the classroom. She has led schools in California and New York City, and from the perch of a state association, she worked with countless...
Director of Research and Learning, YouthTruth
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Jesús Gerena
Jesús is CEO of UpTogether (previously Family Independence Initiative), a national organization with a bold mission of changing policies, systems, and underlying beliefs so that all people in the United States are seen and invested in for their strengths and are able...
CEO, UpTogether
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Jimmy Simpson, Jr.
Jimmy works with hundreds of educators across the U.S. to help them use student voice and feedback to create more equitable and effective school systems. Prior to joining YouthTruth, Jimmy worked as an outdoor science teacher, a STEM summer camp director, and a...
Director of Partnerships, YouthTruth
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John Rangos
John supports the Assessment and Advisory Services team’s survey processes and operations. Before joining CEP in November 2022, John worked at Daily Table and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. He holds a B.A. from Denison University in English and Psychology. In...
Coordinator, Assessment and Advisory Services
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Jordi Hertz
Jordi uses visual storytelling to inform and engage a wide range of stakeholders. She strives to use her creativity and design skills to augment and support the great work of her co-collaborators at YouthTruth. Jordi began her design career in publications –...
Creative Director, Design and Communications, YouthTruth
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Joseph Lee
Joseph leads the creation and presentation of assessment insights for CEP’s clients. Previously, Joe worked at CEP from 2007 to 2010. Prior to rejoining CEP in 2022, Joe served as a senior advisor at The Boston Foundation where, as part of The Philanthropic...
Senior Manager, Assessment and Advisory Services
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Joyce Cheng
Joyce analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, writes reports, and provides assessment insights to CEP clients. She is also involved with CEP's Learning Institute, which offers peer learning cohorts and custom workshops to foundation staff, leaders, donors, and...
Senior Analyst, Assessment and Advisory Services
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Kara Doyle
Kara analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, writes reports, and provides assessment insight to CEP clients. Prior to joining CEP in July 2023, Kara graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Managing for Social Impact and the Public...
Analyst, Assessment and Advisory Services
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