Theresa Clara, MPA
Educational Evaluator
Theresa Clara has fifteen years of program evaluation and grant development experience with RGI. She has managed numerous evaluation grant projects for school districts, non-profits, educational service districts and universities. As our first employee, Theresa has learned and worked in all aspects of the corporation.
Ms. Clara is responsible for training and assisting clients with technology-driven data tracking, developing data collection tools and surveys, monitoring program reporting and performing focus groups and conducting project site visits. She collects and analyzes data to prepare federal program performance reports and develops independent evaluation reports. Ms. Clara is trained and certified as an External Assessor using the Youth Program Quality Assessment Tool and is also a certified trainer in the Youth Work Methods for program quality used by the state for 21st Century Schools Programs.
Ms. Clara is also a member of the grant-writing team providing writing, technical support in the proposal development phase, assisting with data retrieval and interpretation and submitting proposals using various federal and state electronic platforms.
Ms. Clara is responsible for evaluating all the University of Washington GEAR UP Projects with schools located in the Yakima Valley, Skagit Valley and South King County. She also evaluates an Alaska Native Education Project. Using her 21st Century Schools evaluation experience, Ms. Clara provides the 21st Century Schools Evaluation Team with guidance in their delivery of evaluation services.
Prior to RGI, Ms. Clara worked as a research fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and assisted as a student at the UW Medical Center-Roosevelt’s Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. Ms. Clara is from the Yakima Valley, bilingual, knows the community and understands the needs and challenges many families, youth and children face in rural, diverse and economically distressed communities. As a Latina woman raised in a small rural community, she knows the cultural and educational barriers encountered by the recipients of the grants we secure and evaluate for clients.
Ms. Clara received her education at the University of Washington earning her Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 2003 and a Master of Public Administration, Evans School of Public Policy in 2015.