Data for Good

Pollock + Partners is me, Alessandra Pollock, and for many of my projects, expert partners who help extend my individual capacity and abilities. My partners are dear friends and colleagues with whom I’ve developed close working relationships throughout my career in public service. This network allows me to build unique, highly specialized teams for each project I take on or support and to make useful referrals for projects outside my areas of expertise.  

My background includes a Master's Degree in Public Administration focused on management and leadership and nearly two decades of experience with practical research. My approaches elevate the voices of participants and program staff and reshape inequitable systems. I offer analysis and evaluation, data coaching, data collection and evaluation for strategic plans and equity consultantancies, performance measurement, and program design for local government and nonprofit organizations. I have worked in a wide variety of environments including criminal justice, mental health, human services, infrastructure, philanthropy and governement funding, education, and for private businesses.

A few of my recent partners:

Program
Evaluation

I work collaboratively with partners and clients to design and implement evaluations that support decision making and center the voices of those most impacted by the work.

• Washington State Early Achievers child care quality program annual evaluation (2019-ongoing); partner with The Athena Group

• Seattle Environmental Justice Fund reporting and evaluation assessment (2021)

• Washington State Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation developmental evaluation (2021); partner with The Athena Group

• University of Washington Advancement Racial Equity Plan evaluation assessment (2021)

• Washington State Early Connections Plan and Learn Evaluation (2020); partner with The Athena Group

• King County 4Culture Program Evaluation in the context of 2020 strategic planning (2019-2020); partner with Vessel Strategy and Consulting

• King County Best Starts for Kids School Partnership evaluation (2018-2019); partner with Puget Sound Educational Service District

• Internal evaluation capacity building for education-focused youth re-engagement programs in Texas and Ohio (2017)

Data
Coaching

I help individuals and organizations use data equitably to tell the story of their program through numbers and narrative. I facilitate group and individual sessions to develop logic models and theory of change documents and often share simple tracking tools to make data collection and analysis manageable and even fun. 

• King County Best Starts for Kids Data Capacity Building Team (2020-ongoing); partner with Crux Consulting

• Graduate Tacoma Community Learning Fund Data Capacity Consulting (2019-2021); partner with Puget Sound Educational Service District

• South King County education youth re-engagement programs, individually and through learning workshops (2016-2017)

Program and policy Analysis

I conduct policy and program analysis that helps answer key questions to improve lives and streamline services. 

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion engagement employee data collection and analysis (2020-ongoing); partner with Social Designs and Moving Beyond

• Best Starts for Kids COVID-19 Impact Report (2021); partner with Berk Consulting

• Pierce County youth and young adult homelessness assessment and scan (2019); partner with Berk Consulting

• Senior Center West Seattle data analysis (2019); partner with Verrenti Consulting

• College and career readiness activities, supports, and approaches in South King County school districts (2018)

• Pierce County afterschool and summer learning programs landscape scan (2018)

• King County afterschool and summer learning program landscape scan (2017); partner with Berk Consulting

• South King County college-credit earning among students taking Advanced Placement courses (2017)

Program Evaluation and Data

• Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity is a three-part series of practice guides that show how to incorporate racial equity as a core value into evaluation.

• Michael Q Patton’s Evaluation Implications of the Coronavirus Global Health Pandemic Emergency

• American Evaluation Association: Resources, knowledge, and opportunities to conect with evaluation practitioners

Racial Equity Tools and Resources

• Racial Equity Tools offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large.

• Fakequity blog about racial equity and its nemesis Fakequity. According to the site, “Some of the posts may veer off towards equity’s siblings and cousins diversity, inclusion, culture, community engagement, accountability, etc.”

Facilitation and Engagement

• Online facilitation guidance from Peggy Holman, co-founder and director of Journalism that Matters

• Creative Reaction Lab, a new-to-me organization doing equity-centered community engagement, problem solving, and creating inclusive and equitable outcomes

Key Project Partners and past Employers

Local Government

• King County Department of Community
  and Human Services

• King County Public Health

• Seattle Equity & Environment Initiative

• King County 4Culture

• Seattle Municipal Court

• King County Office for Performance,
  Strategy and Budget

• King County Division of
  Developmental Disabilities

Nonprofits

• King County Best Starts for Kids Grantees, including WestSide Baby, Kindering, Friends of the Children, STEM Paths Innovation Network, Kandelia, HopeCentral

• Northwest Education Access

• FamilyWorks

• Washington State Coalition Against
  Domestic Violence

• United Way of King County

• Domestic Abuse Women’s Network

Education

• Community Center for Education Results
  (Road Map Project)

• Puget Sound Educational Service District

• WA Office for the Superintendent
  of Public Instruction

A little more about me…

I've lived in the Pacific Northwest for about 20 years, developing deep ties and friendships that nourish my soul and provide some protection from the dark winters. I am committed to anti-racism and my own ongoing learning and improvement to create a beloved community for all. I volunteer for FamilyWorks food banks and family resource center, play outside, read novels and some nonfiction, cook, garden, spend time with friends, and plan travel for vacation and to volunteer. As a result of the pandemic, I connected with Friendly Hmong Farms and have served as a connection between my neighbors and farmers for two summers and counting. I finished college in Montana, where I met my husband and cultivated a love for wilderness adventures. I have two nearly-grown daughters, two cats, and a revolving flock of hens.