Marisa Eastman

Marisa Eastman is a public health research and innovation strategist at RTI. She is an expert in creating logic models, survey tools, and outcome metrics, and reporting frameworks to capture both short and long-term program impacts. Ms. Eastman designs and implements mix-method evaluations for federally funded programs, including the NIH, NSF, and EDA. Ms. Eastman is a skilled researcher and data analyst, who is proficient in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, including survey design, longitudinal data analysis, and stakeholder interviews. She supports regional and institutional efforts to advance entrepreneurship, translational science, and innovation ecosystems. 

Currently, Ms. Eastman supports large-scale program evaluations and innovation-focused initiatives that bridge research, policy, and practice. She serves as a core member of the evaluation team for NHLBI’s Catalyze Program. There, she collects and analyzes outcome metrics to assess how translation science awardees advance their biomedical technologies. Ms. Eastman also leads the stakeholder engagement and innovation skills development for the Catalyze program, including a monthly webinar series, informational newsletter, and Annual Meeting, which convenes investigators and program leaders for training, an interactive pitch competition, and peer-learning sessions. 

Ms. Eastman contributes to the Build Better Regions Community of Practice (BBR CoP), funded by the Economic Development Administration. In this role, she provides research and technical assistance and implements innovation-driven economic development strategies to more than 60 regional coalitions across the United State. Her work also includes community outreach, coalition support, and performance monitoring to strengthen regional capacity and sustainability. 

Additionally, Ms. Eastman supports the NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Evaluation. She serves as an external evaluator for the University of Missouri, which is dedicated to enhancing entrepreneurship and translational research capacity at the institute. She designs surveys, develops evaluation schedules, and analyzes data to inform reporting and program improvement.

Before joining RTI in 2021, Ms. Eastman designs and implemented a global health research study in Kusama, Ghana. There, she applied epidemiological methods to improve outcomes of traumatic brain injury. She also supported epidemiological studies on aging, cancer, and COVID-19, and she co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on mental health, health disparities, and functional aging among older adults. Finally, Ms. Eastman designed and managed a pediatric chronic lung disease database at the Children’s Respiratory & Critical Care Specialists. 

Ms. Eastman is proficient in the advanced use of statistical and qualitative software (SAS, Stata, R, NVivo, Dedoose).