Using science and accountable privilege to guide the transformation of all our research and create just systems and an equitable world
Key Objectives
- Conduct rigorous evaluations that determine what intervention strategies are working well, what can be improved, and what the impact is on communities that have been marginalized
- Design and implement our work alongside local, state, and regional organizations to create resilient, dynamic, and upwardly mobile economies to transform promising ideas into effective practice and impact
- Redefine the roles and goals of system actors to generate solutions to social problems and implement research practices that support trust-based partnerships, build community power, and inform policy
- Use equity-centered and culturally responsive research practices to inform solutions for structural violence that includes a focus on repairing the harm experienced by victims and communities
- Engage in strategic consultation with organizations to identify inequitable policies and practices and unequal power dynamics that fuel the inequities
Our Team
Stephanie Hawkins
Stephanie Hawkins
Dr. Stephanie Hawkins is the founding director of RTI’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity (TRUE). Dr. Hawkins was trained as a clinical child psychologist at Howard University in a program that is grounded in the practice of community-engaged research to serve globally unserved settings. During her 25+ year research career, race and health equity has been the through line in her research. She has substantive expertise in community violence prevention and the healthy development of youth who reside in marginalized communities.
Daniela Pineda
Daniela Pineda
Daniela Pineda, PhD, leads the Social and Economic Justice Research Collaborative Workstream. She brings over two decades of experience in strategic advising, program design, impact measurement, evaluation, and organizational development. Dr. Pineda has served in leadership roles across the public and private sectors and specializes in developing tailor-made measurement frameworks to assess the efficacy and impact of systems-level interventions. Her expertise includes early childhood education, the P-16 education pipeline, and public/private partnerships.
Sara Lawrence
Sara Lawrence
Sara Lawrence is program director of economic development at RTI, with 21 years of experience helping people and places develop strategies, analyze data, and assess promising practices for economic development. She interacts across all sectors—business, education, nonprofit, and government—to design and evaluate programs with action-specific solutions unique to the community of focus. She has worked in 20 U.S. states and in 13 countries spanning four continents. Recent work reflects the creation of an Idea Lab for equitable economic development; the development of a Blueprint to Dismantle Systemic Racism in Wake County, North Carolina; and an evaluation of entrepreneurial ecosystem programs in Oregon. Ms. Lawrence is an Executive in Residence at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and an Associate Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Project on Prosperity and Development. She recently served on the U.S. Council on Competitiveness’ National Commission Working Group.
Ashley Lowe
Ashley Lowe
Ashley Lowe, MPH, has a decade of experience conducting intervention and evaluation studies related to community, youth, and sexual violence, racial and community justice, mental health promotion, and the prevention of substance abuse. Ms. Lowe leads mixed-methods research projects, including tasks related to monitoring and evaluation, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and survey development. Her goal is to support individuals living in community’s disproportionality impacted by violence through individual, community, and system-level interventions.
Yamanda Wright
Yamanda Wright
Yamanda Wright, PhD, is a developmental psychologist who specializes in evaluating criminal legal system policies, practices, and outcomes for people across the lifespan. She is especially passionate about examining policies that disproportionately affect historically marginalized groups, such as school district rules that may contribute to over-representation of youth of color in juvenile citations and arrests. Dr. Wright also enjoys writing about children's understanding of race, gender, and disabilities. Outside of work at RTI, she has received funding from the American Psychological Foundation's Kenneth B. and Mamie P. Clark Fund and serves on the Board of Directors for Disability Law Center, a legal aid and advocacy organization for people with disabilities in the Boston area.
