Experience

Director of Impact, Girls Empowerment Network, December 2019 to present

Program Evaluator, Girls Empowerment Network, March 2019 to November 2019

Responsibilities:

  • Lead all program evaluation and program data management at Girls Empowerment Network, analyzing the impact of various programs on over 7000 participants annually.
  • Designed an accessible new agency evaluation system to align with agency goals and mission, creating a sense of shared evaluation and learning ownership for program managers, across all agency functions.
  • Develop and implement agency-wide data management strategy through SalesForce and other data management tools.
  • Built growth mindset for agency towards SalesForce and other data and project management strategies, to ensure smooth growth into new regions.
  • Manage and ensure compliance with research and data sharing agreements with all program school districts and other partners, including expanding access to program participant school outcomes.
  • Remain current on academic literature relevant to program goals.
  • Lead relationships with key donors focused on program impact and evaluations. Draft grant applications relevant to role.
  • Supervise Mental Health Policy Fellow and provide guidance in designing agency policy advocacy strategy and activities.
  • Serve as project manager for SalesForce administration and improvement projects. Supervise work of SalesForce consultant, and direct SalesForce Champions committee to ensure expertise throughout agency and ownership of key department projects.
  • Supervise data, operations, research and evaluation intern and work study positions, providing opportunities for professional growth while supporting agency activities.

Key Successes:

  • Provided first evidence of statistically significant growth in self-efficacy, in two programs across two program years.
  • Directed development of improved attendance application, allowing program facilitators to move from 60% to 80% direct service and increase number of direct service programs.
  • Developed agency-wide master questionnaire to ensure all surveys align with agency goals.
  • Improved SalesForce donor and constituent management by leveraging relationships within SalesForce, improving use of “affiliations” to track Girl program involvement and improved ability to track number of girls retained for 6 sessions within school-based programs.

Presentations and Writing:

Independent Consultant, Children’s Defense Fund Texas, November 2018 to January 2020

Responsibilities:

  • Serve as lead researcher and project manager for study of best practices in outreach and enrollment in ethnic and immigrant communities in Central Texas.
  • Develop partnerships with key agencies working with immigrant communities in central Texas for stakeholder interviews and focus group.
  • Write all focus group discussion guides, interview guides and informed consent documents. Conduct all interviews and focus groups, in collaboration with staff from CBO-partners when culturally appropriate. Analyze all fieldnotes from interviews and focus groups.
  • Liaise with university partners to apply for institutional review board approval of project and to ensure that project activities remain in compliance with IRB guidelines.
  • Write best practices document based on research findings.

Key successes:

  • Conducted 12 interviews with enrollment and child health stakeholders.
  • Conducted 4 focus groups with enrollment and child health stakeholders and immigrant families.
  • Utilized existing data sets to establish patterns of immigrant communities in central Texas counties over past 5 years.

PhD Candidate, Medical Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, May 2015 to May 2019
Dissertation: “Making Medicine Amish” 

  • Designed and conducted independent 3 year-long ethnographic study of community responses to genetic disorders in three Amish and Plain Anabaptist communities.
  • Recruited and interviewed over 45 stakeholders including providers and board members at clinics for genetic disorders, Amish women, Amish religious leaders, and reproductive healthcare providers.
  • Managed a project budget of $32,000, with grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Presentations:

  • ““We Take Them as They Are”: Narratives of Rejection and Resistance in Amish Use of Genetic Testing,” Presentation: American Anthropological Association Meetings, San Jose, November 2018.
  • “Making Healthcare Amish: An Examination of Creating Culturally Competent Novel Healthcare Systems,” Presentation: Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings, April 2018.
  • “Making Medicine Amish,” Presentation: Rural Sociology Society Meetings, Columbus, OH, July 2017.
  • “Amish Responses to Genetic Disorders in Ohio,” Presentation: Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown, PA, June 2016.
  • 2016. Sarah Miller-Fellows, Jill E. Korbin, Lawrence P. Greksa. “Amish Families.” The Encyclopedia of Family Studies. Connie Shehan (Editor-in-Chief). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • “Social Identity, Biological Citizenship, and Genetic Disorders Among the Amish,” Presentation: American Anthropological Association Meetings, Chicago, November 2013.

Graduate Research Assistant, Schubert Center for Child Studies, Case Western Reserve University, August 2010 to September 2016

  • Researched and prepared technical papers for center talks and meetings with local and state officials, writing for a wide range of audiences.
  • Served as lead author on 4 center policy briefs, analyzing current research findings to create listing of best practices.
  • Directed the management of all center social media platforms and transfer of all website content into a new platform, leading a team of my 3 graduate students and undergraduate assistants.
  • Prepared testimony for relevant child policy issues to be given before the Ohio State Legislature and recommendations for Department of Justice Consent Decree regarding the Cleveland Division of Police.
  • Prepared and copy-edited manuscripts for submission to publishers, including three edited volumes of 260 to 550 page.
  • Assisted in grant preparation and submission, including grants to the George Gund Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
  • Co-authored annual reports for FY 2011-2015.

Publications:

  • 2016. Sarah Miller-Fellows. “Child Abuse.” Encyclopedia of Youth Cultures in America. Simon Bronner (Editor). ABC Clio.
  • 2014. Jill Korbin and Richard Krugman (Editors). Sarah Miller-Fellows (Assistant Editor). The Handbook of Child Maltreatment. Springer.

Technical Papers Co-Authored with the Schubert Center for Child Studies

MPH Practicum Student, Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services, July 2013 to September 2013

  • Designed and conducted program evaluation of efficacy of 10-year cultural competence strategy for public mental health services targeting the Amish community.
  • Surveyed patient records over 10 year period, finding 320% increase in annual utilization by Amish community members following implementation of cultural competence strategy.

Publications & Presentations:

Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, July 2011 to August 2011, June 2012 to July 2012

  • Served as research assistant for 20-plus-year project studying polyparasitism in Msambweni District, Coast Province, Kenya for summer 2011 and summer 2012.
  • Evaluated use of PedsQL in east Africa to determine cultural appropriateness for assessing health impacts childhood anemia.
  • Led a team of 4 researchers conducting quantitative and qualitative reproductive history survey of 200 women to examine the relationship between childhood treatment of schistosomiasis infection and adult subfertility, finding a decreased association between subfertility and schistosomiasis among women treated at least once prior to age 13.

Publications & Presentations:

Teaching Experience

Teacher, VIP KID, May 2018 to March 2019

  • Taught English as a Second Language courses to students in China.

Instructor, Cleveland State University
Courses: ANT 100: Human Diversity, Fall 2012

  • Served as instructor of record for an 83 student, introductory general education course on anthropology from a four-fields perspective.
  • Developed weekly reading lists and lectures, led course discussions and conducted all course evaluations.

Grants and Awards

  • Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation, December 2016-May 2017
    Title: Reproduction in the Context of Genetic Disorders among the Geauga County, Ohio Amish, Grant Number: 9294
  • Richard A. Zdanis Fellowship, Case Western Reserve University, May 2016 (Dissertation Writing)
  • Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, September 2015-August 2017
    Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reproduction in the Context of Genetic Disorders among the Geauga County, Ohio Amish. Project ID: RES205219
  • FLAS Summer Fellowship, Swahili, Ohio University, Summer 2013
  • Ruth Barber Moon Award, Case Western Reserve University, May 2013 (Academic Promise & Leadership)
  • Smith College Kahn Liberal Arts Institute Fellowship, 2009-2010
  • Smith College STRIDE Scholarship, 2006-2008