Chief Evaluation Officer
Christina Yancey, PhD
Christina Yancey, PhD, is the Chief Evaluation Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). She is responsible for coordinating the Department's evaluation agenda and working with all its agencies to design and implement evaluations. Dr. Yancey has more than 15 years of experience examining the effectiveness of employment and other social policies and programs on the lives of people in the United States, with a focus on vulnerable populations. Before joining DOL in 2014, Dr. Yancey served in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP), conducting performance management and strategic planning activities for the agency. Before joining the federal government in 2010, Dr. Yancey developed, coordinated, and directed field-based evaluations of social programs for the state of Maryland. She holds a PhD from the School of Public Affairs at American University and an MA from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Staff Bios
Lauren Damme Deputy Director
Lauren Damme is the Deputy Director of the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), where she is responsible for helping oversee CEO’s evaluation research portfolio, staff and office functions. Before joining CEO in 2019, Ms. Damme served as the Senior Evaluation Research Advisor in the DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT). There, Ms. Damme led strategic guidance and stakeholder engagement efforts; and provided technical oversight of the impact evaluation and survey research portfolios for OCFT. She has over 18 years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation, primarily in international development, and has worked in around 30 countries. Ms. Damme has served in Ecuador, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and the US in multilateral United Nations organizations, corporate and nonprofit sectors, and has worked with the Japanese government. She holds an MSc in development management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in marketing/survey research from Iowa State University, and is a doctoral candidate in the Public Policy Ph.D. program at George Washington University.
C.J. Krizan, PhD Director of Data Analytics
C.J. Krizan, PhD, is the Director of Data Analytics at the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). As Director, Dr. Krizan oversees a team of applied statisticians who support DOL’s agencies by employing rigorous econometric techniques on large administrative data sets to gain valuable insights. The team builds and maintains these complex data sets so that they and other researchers can use them to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of DOL’s programs. Before coming to DOL, Dr. Krizan was a Senior Economist at the Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies where he conducted academic-quality research and also served as a liaison to other Department of Commerce agencies interested in conducting program evaluation studies using Census data. In addition, he worked at Fortune 500 companies, taught in universities, and is the co‐founder of a family‐owned toy company. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University and was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Central Bank of Spain in Madrid.
Giorleny D. Altamirano Rayo, PhD Mathematical Statistician
Giorleny D. Altamirano Rayo, PhD, is a Mathematical Statistician in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes building and updating a database of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices and levering data analysis to improve DOL’s programs. Before joining CEO, she worked at DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. There, she led policy engagement on labor and trade issues with trade partners and promoted the use of scientific methods. She has over 15 years of experience in applied research and foreign policy, with a focus on human rights. Before joining the federal government in 2018, she worked for the Nicaraguan government and Vanderbilt University. She earned a JD from the American University (Nicaragua), an LLM from Vanderbilt with a Fulbright Scholarship, a PhD in Political Science from the University of Texas-Austin, and was a awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a former National Science Foundation Scholar.
Joe Amick, PhD Mathematical Statistician
Joe Amick, PhD, is a Mathematical Statistician in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). At the Department of Labor (DOL), his work focuses on leveraging administrative data to compliment evaluation activities on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. He has produced peer-reviewed publications on topics such as anti-corruption commissions, higher education’s role in technology adoption, balanced budget amendments, and vote-buying. Before joining CEO, he worked at USAID initially in the Global Development Lab, then later in the Office for Learning, Evaluation, and Research in the Policy, Planning, and Learning Bureau. He led USAID’s cash benchmarking research agenda and supported the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Innovations program. He has more than 12 years of experience in applied research, with field experience across Asia and Africa. He was selected as a Southeast Asia Research Group Fellow for his research on local Indonesian elections. He earned a MPA from New York University and a PhD in Government from the University of Texas-Austin.
Kuang-chi Chang, PhD Senior Evaluation Specialist
Kuang-chi Chang, PhD, is a Senior Evaluation Specialist at the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her evaluation portfolio includes worker protection, employee benefits, worker leave, workers’ compensation, and international labor affairs. Dr. Chang has more than 20 years of experience conducting research using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on topics such as supplier networks in the global supply chain of the computer manufacturing industry and on working conditions, employment outcomes, and job-searching approaches used by migrant workers. Before joining the federal government in 2016, Dr. Chang led research on labor issues at the Fair Labor Association and was a member of the Sociology Department faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a PhD and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Jennifer Daley Evaluation Specialist
Jennifer Daley is an Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes behavioral interventions, the opioid epidemic and employment, employment and training, international labor, and CEO communications efforts. Before joining CEO, Ms. Daley worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Branch of Policy Analysis, and as a Bilingual Equal Employment Opportunity specialist at the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Civil Rights Center. During her time at CEO, she was awarded a Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship at the Ministry of Economy and Development in Chile, working on issues related to gender economic equality, future of work, and public–private partnerships around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Before joining DOL, Ms. Daley served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. She holds an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a BA in government from Smith College.
Janet Javar Senior Evaluation Specialist
Janet Javar is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio focuses primarily on employment and training, unemployment insurance, veterans services, and the use of administrative data (particularly earnings data) for research and program management. Ms. Javar has more than 20 years of experience overseeing U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) studies. Prior to joining CEO in 2012, she was with DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR), where she oversaw evaluations of employment and training initiatives, particularly those focused on adults and dislocated workers. She also managed ETA’s five-year strategic research plans and research symposiums. She holds an MPM from the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a BA in interdisciplinary studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Megan Lizik Senior Evaluation Specialist
Megan Lizik is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Ms. Lizik leads the development of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) and manages a portfolio of evaluation projects primarily related to employment and training issues. She led DOL’s work on the application of behavioral insights to labor programs, was a primary architect of DOL's Pay for Success pilot, has developed tiered evidence standards for various labor programs, and has advised agencies pursuing similar strategies. Prior to joining CEO in 2014, Ms. Lizik held a variety of positions in DOL’s Washington, DC headquarters and Chicago regional office, as well as in the private sector. Ms. Lizik has more than 15 years of experience in workforce development, grant program and fiscal management, public policy, manufacturing and international supply chain management, compensation, performance management, and evaluation. She holds an MA in labor and industrial relations and a BS in human development and family science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Deborah Martierrez Senior Evaluation Specialist
Deborah Martierrez is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes employment and training, survey research, and international labor issues. Before joining CEO in 2019, she worked for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), overseeing international grant programs and research projects related to child labor and forced labor. Before joining the federal government, she worked for nonprofit initiatives in Washington, DC and throughout South America. Ms. Martierrez has more than 15 years of experience across the public and nonprofit sectors in the fields of international development, research and evaluation, and federal grant and contract management. She holds an MA in survey research from the University of Connecticut, and an MPP and BA in international studies from American University in Washington, DC.
Monica Mean, PhD Senior Evaluation Specialist
Monica Mean, PhD, is a Senior Evaluation Specialist at the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes employment and training programs through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), apprenticeships, career navigation, and workforce development programs in community colleges. She has expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research in workforce development and policies that affect the intersection between education and employment. Prior to joining CEO, Dr. Mean was an education research analyst in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) where she helped shape the research and evaluation priorities for career and technical education and adult education. She served as the OCTAE liaison for the Career and Technical Education Research Network and provided guidance on evaluations of adult education models under WIOA. Prior to joining the federal government, Dr. Mean served as a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation where she conducted mixed methods research and evaluation on various education topics and programs. Dr. Mean received her PhD in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she completed research on the association between taking career and technical education courses in high school and various education and employment outcomes.
Samuel Rowe, PhD Mathematical Statistician
Samuel Rowe, PhD is a Mathematical Statistician in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). His portfolio includes using administrative and survey data to assess violations for worker protection programs. He also maintains the database for estimates of FLSA coverage, exemptions, and violations from the Current Population Survey. He has also used administrative data and survey data to conduct demographic, earnings, and employment disparity analyses and he has used quasi-experimental designs to assess the impact of programs on employment and wages. Before joining CEO, Mr. Rowe worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 11 years in the Office of Productivity and Technology. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he researched the impact of “Right-to-Work” laws on wages, employment, and unionization, along with income and poverty dynamics. He also holds a MS in economics from Florida State University and a BS in economics from the University of Utah.
Ryan Sutter, PhD Mathematical Statistician
Ryan Sutter, PhD, is a Mathematical Statistician in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). His work focuses on providing analytic services to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) agencies, including data analysis and data visualization; complex statistical modeling; accessing, using, or creating public use data files; and providing support to analyze administrative and other programmatic data. Before joining CEO, Dr. Sutter served as a supervisory mathematical statistician in the Office of Unemployment Insurance and as a workforce analyst in DOL’s Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR). Prior to joining the federal government in 2009, Dr. Sutter conducted research in both the private and academic sectors. He holds a PhD in public policy analysis from the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and an MA (with a specialization in applied econometrics) and BA in economics from the University of Toledo.
Chayun Yi Evaluation Specialist
Chayun Yi is an Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes disability employment, worker health and safety, employment and training and supporting the development of the Department's Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR). Prior to joining CEO, she served as a consultant providing research and evaluation support to various federal agencies. She holds an MPP from George Mason University and a BA in political science/international relations from the University of Virginia.