Founder
Karen Peterman
I am an evaluator and researcher who studies both formal and informal STEM education programs. My favorites are those that are particularly tricky to study, like science festivals and citizen science projects. I received fantastic Ph.D. training in the psych department at Duke, and have applied my skills to the field of education since 2002. I started doing independent consulting work in 2007 and founded KPC in 2010, with a focus on STEM education. KPC became Catalyst Consulting Group in 2022. I split my time between providing external evaluation services for some and collaborating to publish educational research with others. A lot of my most recent work has focused on evaluation capacity building, and a number of the resources on this site are from those projects.
Staff
Allison Black-Maier
Allison joined Catalyst in 2020 and works on the NSF INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance. She manages the project’s Salesforce database, which the Alliance is using to collect data about program participation. Allison also contributes to the evaluation of the 2021 National Math Festival.
Jane Robertson Evia
Jane is a Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at Virginia Tech. She has worked with Karen Peterman Consulting since 2011, collaborating on program evaluation data collection and analysis, as well as report and manuscript writing. One of Jane’s primary interests is the use of effective data visualization as a means of meaningfully communicating information.
Keshia Martin
Keshia is a doctoral student in the Educational Research Methodology department at UNC-Greensboro with a Masters degree in Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation. She joined Karen Peterman Consulting in 2018 and has worked on project management, data collection and analysis for projects such as IMPACTS, NC Science Festival and WeatherBlur.
Tania Connaughton-Espino
Tania joined Catalyst in March 2021 and works on the NSF INCLUDES SEAS Islands Alliance and serves as the primary contact for the Puerto Rico hub. Tania has more than 17 years of experience managing public health programs and conducting research and evaluation with Latinx communities. Her expertise is in qualitative research and analysis and program evaluation.
Key Contributors
Jen Gathings
Jen is a professional evaluator working in NC. She has worked with Karen Peterman Consulting as a senior consultant since 2015, collaborating on program evaluation data collection and analysis, as well as report and manuscript writing. Her expertise lies in qualitative data collection and analysis, evaluation capacity building, and sociological perspectives on gender, race, and class inequalities.
Maren Harris
Maren is an independent educational researcher and evaluator located in New Jersey. She has worked with Karen Peterman Consulting since 2012 on a variety of projects. Her current Catalyst projects include WeatherBlur and Project INSPIRES. Her skill set includes instrument development; data collection via surveys, interviews, and classroom observation; data analysis; report writing; and NVivo.
Leanne Jacobson
Leanne has been working with for Catalyst as a senior consultant since 2008. Leanne works primarily on the CSO and SCA projects and contributes to other projects as needed. Capable in all areas of evaluation and research, Leanne’s typical responsibilities are data collection, data analysis and customizing reports to client needs.
Julie Johnson
Julie is a writer and editor with a background in biological sciences who specializes in academic manuscripts. She has worked on nearly twenty different projects for Catalyst since 2015.