Hello, my name is Ashweeta Patnaik. I am a social science researcher with seventeen years of experience in program evaluation, policy research, and data analytics across a wide policy portfolio, including workforce development, post-secondary training, post-secondary access and completion, financial empowerment, and economic mobility. I love using data to build evidence and translate research into actionable insights that help programs create pathways out of poverty. My expertise is in quantitative research methods, data visualizations, and adminsitrative data linkage. I also have extensive experience in managing projects, providing evaluation technical assistance, designing data collection plans, designing longitudinal databases, and effectively communicating data insights to diverse audiences. I have a Masters’s degree in Public Health from The University of Texas Health Science Center. I am a certified Institutes of Educational Sciences What Works Clearinghouse reviewer and a certified SAS Base Programmer.
Currently, I am a Principal Associate at MEF Associates, where I lead and collaborate on a wide variety of large-scale policy research and evaluation efforts. Before joining MEF in 2022, I was a Research Associate at the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the University of Texas at Austin, where I designed and conducted rigorous program evaluations that leveraged administrative data to support the continuous improvement efforts of local and state human service programs and interventions.