About Us
Social Insights Research is a women of color led firm whose members employ their diverse backgrounds and skills to inform their work on challenging projects.
OUR GOAL
To shift the evaluation paradigm by utilizing mixed methodologies that go beyond counting hours, people, and dollars. We work to decolonize evaluation and research in partnership with organizations that resource and center marginalized populations.
Our Team
Zuri Tau, LMSW, PhD (C)
Zuri Tau is deeply committed to practicing research and evaluation in service of equity. She has over 16 years of experience in advancing social justice through on the ground organizing and evaluating government programs and non-profits, facilitating workshops and partnering with community based organizations. Currently, she advises international organizations like RAND Corporation and Open Society Foundation on best practices for equity in research and writes about liberatory practice in leadership and research.
Zuri has developed curriculum for decolonizing research, trauma-informed care, and practicing evaluation from a racial equity lens. She is the former managing editor of the academic journal, City and Community, a licensed therapist, yoga teacher and is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology. Zuri leads a multitalented team of evaluators, psychologists, public health professionals, advocates and activists to do the work of Social Insights and is also the founder of Liberatory Research, an initiative to elevate BIPOC theory and practice in the social sciences.
Dannielle “Danni” Thomas, MA
Dannielle Thomas was raised in the US South in a deep tradition of black history and activism, has vast and global experience in philanthropy and fundraising, program strategy and management, and equity practices within nonprofit and direct service networks. Dannielle also has a deep love for the beauty and power of the arts. She believes the arts are critical to visioning new worlds and possibilities, and coupled with systemic tactics and strategy, can lead to sustainable movements and change.
Dannielle is Social Insights’ Chief Operations Officer and is responsible for business development, internal operations and cultural work. When she’s not working, she’s honing her wine tasting skills, reading Sci-fi/Afrofuturist writing, and finding joy in her family and community.
Sabine Monice, MPH
Sabine Monice is an experienced evaluator who has worked in non-profit and educational settings throughout California and the South. She has co-managed community-based mixed-methods projects and is skilled at creating and establishing study protocols for focus groups and interviews, providing technical assistance, training community researchers, and cultivating rich relationships.
Sabine is a Research and Evaluation Manager at Social Insights and specializes in formative evaluation and research projects including projects with The New School, United Way and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Christyl Wilson Ebba, PhD
Dr. Christyl Ebba is a multifaceted educator, evaluator, and community psychologist. Her experience as the daughter of Liberian immigrants informs her commitment to education, equity, and social justice. Christyl has a background in education, including teaching children abroad and as a Teach for America corps member. As a researcher and evaluator, Christyl enjoys partnering with organizations and programs to help them find meaning and amplify their impact.
Christyl is a Senior Project Manager at Social Insights and specializes in large-scale research and evaluation projects that require mixed methods analysis. She has led national survey research on COVID-19 for Black Feminist Future, city-wide research on community safety, and the evaluation of statewide power-building efforts in the Washington state with OneAmerica.
Marilyn Nguyen, BA
Marilyn Nguyen is passionate about projects that bridge the divide between people from different backgrounds. She is the first in her family to be born in the United States and attend college. She has traveled to Antigua and Barbuda, Uganda, and China pursuing her commitment to equity work and sustainability.
Marilyn has been involved with almost every Social Insights project since 2018. She conducts background research for new projects and completes all interview and focus group transcriptions.
Maya Corneille, PhD
Maya Corneille is committed to building community collaborations that strategize to dismantle structural inequalities and build upon the collective strengths of marginalized communities. She has 20 years of experience providing consultation, facilitation, program development, and evaluation for organizations committed to social justice. She has taught courses and published extensively on equity, racial justice, and institutional change. She is passionate about writing as a tool for healing.
Maya Corneille is a Senior Research and Evaluation Manager at Social Insights Research. She works with Social Insights on projects focusing on equity, strategy, and leadership.
Win Guan, PhD
Win Guan is a health equity sociologist practicing research and evaluation with experience in multiple sectors including academia, government, non-profit, and private industry. These experiences have led Win to become deeply passionate for closing the gap between upstream research and evaluation and grassroots, community-based application. He is committed to creatively communicating findings to all levels of stakeholders and ensuring community access and benefit.
Win is the Senior Research and Evaluation Manager at Social Insights responsible for managing large-scale research projects, data analyses, and data visualizations. Born and raised in New Orleans, Win centers the power of relationships as a driving factor in meaningful change in self and societal structures.
Kaila Davis, BA
Kaila Davis is passionate about creating and facilitating black spaces. A New Jersey native, she has developed a true love and affinity for the city of Atlanta and credits it for playing a large role in her personal and professional growth. With a background in communications, hospitality, and philanthropy, Kaila enjoys working with dynamic teams to bring visions to life. Her ideal world is a world in which all people are given the tools and resources necessary to understand, love, and advocate for themselves.
Kaila manages all administrative activities and community coordination for Social Insights.
Sashana Rowe-Harriott, BA
Sashana Rowe-Harriott is people-centered and is passionate about working on projects that are in service to others, particularly among underserved groups. Her immigrant experience and core value of interdependence informs her commitment to advocacy and equity and shapes her work as a researcher.
Sashana is a Research and Evaluation Associate at Social Insights who supports research projects, and the implementation of monitoring and evaluation plans including projects with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Magnolia Mother’s Trust, and Center for Third World Organizing.
Nidal Karim, PhD
Nidal Karim is a community psychologist and gender justice advocate committed to supporting institutions and groups to evolve towards intersectional, feminist, and justice-centered approaches and structures for funding, governance, research, evaluation, program design, and learning. Her lived experiences deeply inform her worldview and the theoretical and conceptual frameworks she draws on. For over 15 years, she has built her knowledge and critical analyses through her work on gender justice and gender based-violence research, monitoring and evaluation, program design, and advocacy across varied geographical contexts.
Nidal is a Senior Project Manager at Social Insights and works on projects utilizing qualitative, mixed-methods, and participatory approaches including work with United Way, The Open Society Foundation, and the innovative guaranteed income project, Magnolia Mother’s Trust.
Simran Sachdev, MS
Simran Sachdev is a researcher, writer, and activist, and is dedicated to upholding human rights for all communities. Her immigrant experience and years of global work in marginalized communities shapes her emphasis on participatory research. She has designed research projects that can have a real impact on the affected community, and her favorite role is as a community researcher supporting women to advocate for themselves and create the change they want in their lives and communities.
Simran is a project manager at Social Insights and works on the design, implementation , and management of participatory research and evaluation projects with an equity focus including reimagining equitable funding practices for Episcopal City Mission and leading an innovative health equity project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and IDEO.org.
Sian Miranda Singh ÓFaoláin, MA
Sian (Pronounced Shann) ÓFaoláin is a evaluator, innovative leader and organizer. For the last 12 years, she has worked within social justice organizations focused on economic justice, migration, human rights, and racial justice. Sian has been trained in transformative organizing through the Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD) and the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO), and brings an intersectional, multicultural, Black Feminist perspective to her work.
Sian works with Social Insights on mixed-methods and participatory projects centering racial, gender, and reproductive justice including power-building initiatives with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the HIVE reproductive justice program with CompassPoint and the Packard Foundation.
Emmanuel “Mani-Jade” García, MA, MPhil
Mani-Jade García is a trilingual psychological scientist-practitioner, researcher and evaluator. He is committed to improving access to statistical and data analysis education for minoritized and underserved groups. He is experienced in utilizing decolonized qualitative and quantitative methods and applies his statistical analysis skills to community-based work.
Mani-Jade is a project manager at Social Insights and works on mixed methods research and evaluation projects including the innovative guaranteed income project, Magnolia Mothers Trust, and Coaching for Healing Justice and Liberation.
Catherine Labiran, MA
Catherine Labiran is passionate about community-based participatory research and advancing human rights through poetry, advocacy, and research. And a Nigerian woman who was born in New York and raised in London, she strives to infuse her diverse cultural experiences into exhilarating bodies of work enabling them to live lives of their own. She has published research on the experiences of Black women immigrants and was conferred the honour of writing the official Olympic Poem for London 2012 as one of London’s “12 Poets for 2012”.
Catherine is a project manager at Social Insights and works on projects employing qualitative and participatory approaches including Black Feminist Future and the Center for Third World Organizing/Liberatory Leadership Praxis Project.
Amina Khawja, MPH
Amina Khawja is a social justice-focused evaluator and program planner with over 12 years of professional experience working with nonprofits, philanthropic and research organizations, international nongovernmental institutions, and local and federal governments. She is tri-cultural, native Spanish speaker with proficiency in Portuguese, and is experienced in evaluation with multiple populations. Her areas of interest include community-based participatory research and evaluation, equity in all programs in policies, and capacity-building among historically underrepresented groups.
Amina works with Social Insights on research and evaluation projects that utilize mixed methods, participatory methodologies, and an equity focus, including an innovative health equity project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and IDEO.org.
Affiliated Consultants
Jardyn Lake, MA
Jardyn is is a Southern black/queer cultural activist, youth worker, and artist. They work with Social Insights on qualitative data collection and storytelling.
Tamika Blu Lewis, MS
Blu is a researcher, community organizer, artist, and consultant. They work with Social Insights on qualitative data collection, storytelling, and reporting.
Organizational Collaborators
We collaborate with Sally Leiderman and Stephanie Halbert Jones of Center for Assessment and Policy Development.
We collaborate with the team at the Center for Evaluation Innovation