CEO Staff Biographies

Scott Gibbons, Acting Chief Evaluation Officer

Scott Gibbons is the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Acting Chief Evaluation Officer and Scientific Integrity Official. He continues to serve as the department’s Chief Data Officer since the position’s creation in March 2019. As Chief Data Officer, he provides oversight and leadership for DOL’s efforts to develop, maintain, share and utilize data to best support the department’s mission. He leads the Data Board, which serves as the department’s data governance body, and oversees the development and establishment of coordinated department-wide positions on data governance, strategy, quality and the management of data as a strategic asset.

Prior to this, Gibbons has worked in various analytical and statistical capacities for the Department of Labor for more than 20 years. He most recently served as Program Manager for Data Analytics for the Chief Evaluation Office at DOL. In this capacity, he led projects assessing and improving data quality and raising the capacity of staff to use data to inform program administration. Prior to that, he was a Supervisory Statistician with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Employment and Training Administration. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Maryland and has a master's degree in biology from American University.

Lauren Damme Director of Research, Protection & Enforcement Programs

Lauren Damme is the Director of Research for Protection & Enforcement Programs in 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 bilateral engagement efforts; and provided technical oversight of the impact evaluation and survey research portfolios for OCFT. She has over 20 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 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 statisticians supporting DOL agencies through customized services such as applied econometric modeling, project oversight, data provision, and statistical consulting. 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 on job creation and destruction, productivity growth, and program evaluation. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University, was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Central Bank of Spain in Madrid, and is an elected member of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (CRIW).

Vacant Director of Research, Employment & Training Programs

Giorleny D. Altamirano Rayo Senior Mathematical Statistician

Gio Altamirano Rayo, JD/PhD, is a Senior Mathematical Statistician in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). She is the team lead for the Behavioral Interventions portfolio and Data Analytics projects that leverage data to inform and improve DOL programs. Some of her projects include building and updating a database of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, deriving and communicating findings based on sound statistical and AI/Machine Learning methods, and building DOL’s analytical capacity. 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 to improve program outcomes. 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 as a diplomat for the Nicaraguan government and as a manager for 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 Senior 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 a wide variety of labor program areas, including Unemployment Insurance (UI), reemployment services, and worker protection. He has produced peer-reviewed publications on topics as diverse as anti-corruption commissions, higher education’s role in technology adoption, balanced budget amendments, and vote-buying. Before joining CEO, he worked at USAID leading their cash benchmarking research agenda and supporting their Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Innovations program. He has more than 12 years of experience in applied research, with research experience across Asia, Africa, and the United States. He is a former Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG) 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 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 and stakeholder engagement strategy. 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.

Kelly A. Gleason Senior Evaluation Specialist

Kelly A. Gleason, PhD, is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). Her portfolio includes worker protection and enforcement, including programs for safety and health, civil rights, wages, and worker benefits, with a special focus on the use of administrative data for research. Her expertise lies in quantitative research methodology and data analytics/governance with a broad substantive emphasis on international labor rights policy. Before joining CEO, Dr. Gleason served as a data scientist for multiple United Nations agencies, including the International Labour Organization, where her research concentrated on estimating the cost of policy interventions to eliminate forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking, as well as the development of evidence-based policy tools and data visualization platforms. Prior to her UN career, Dr. Gleason worked in data analytics and research at University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute and taught statistical methods and programming at University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 2011. She holds an MA in Sociology and PhD in Political Science (with a specialization in statistics) from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Janet Javar Senior Evaluation Specialist

Janet Javar is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office. She has more than 20 years of experience in planning, designing, and managing evaluations and research using quantitative and qualitative methods to support DOL agencies with their evidence-informed decision-making. Her portfolio focuses primarily on employment and training, community colleges, veterans services, and the use of administrative data for research and program management. She is also responsible for planning and implementing CEO’s communications strategy to disseminate CEO’s body of work in research and other evidence-building activities. She led the Department’s first Evidence Capacity Assessment, as part of the Evidence Act, and serves as the CEO liaison with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Veterans Employment Services (VETS) on their learning agendas. Prior to joining CEO in 2012, she was with ETA’s Office of Policy Development and Research where she helped design and test new interventions in randomized controlled trial evaluations, as well as manage implementation and outcome evaluations of employment and training programs and grant initiatives, particularly those focused on adults and dislocated workers. She also led ETA’s five-year strategic research plans and research symposiums. She holds an MPM, with a focus on social policy, 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 E. Lizik Senior Evaluation Specialist

Megan E. Lizik is a Senior Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office. She has nearly 20 years of evidence-building experience across the public and private sectors, helping translate evidence for use by policymakers and practitioners seeking to meet continuous improvement goals. She has expertise in tiered evidence strategies, behavioral interventions, and pay for performance approaches, and has advised agencies pursuing similar strategies. Ms. Lizik leads the development of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) and oversees a portfolio of applied evaluation and research projects primarily related to employment and training issues, including unemployment insurance, workforce development, and the use of administrative data for research. Prior to joining CEO in 2014, she held a variety of positions with DOL’s Employment and Training Administration in its Washington, DC headquarters and Chicago regional offices, as well as in the private sector, gaining experience in public policy, grant and contracts management, performance management, compensation, and labor relations. Ms. Lizik holds an M.A. in human resources, labor, and industrial relations and a B.S. in human development and family science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Monica Mean 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 and the reentry space. She has expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research in workforce development and policies that affect the intersection between education, training, 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.

Evan Murphy Evaluation Specialist

Evan Murphy, PhD, is an Evaluation Specialist in the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). His evaluation portfolio focuses broadly on employment and training, including reentry programs, workforce development programs, and unemployment insurance. He also supports the development of the Department's Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR). Prior to joining the CEO, he conducted research and evaluated education programs at the National Judicial College. He also has experience managing and evaluating various programs with at-risk youth. He received his PhD and MA in Interdisciplinary Social Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he conducted research on psychology and public policy.

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.