Our Team

Taneisha Lee, Ph.D. serves as Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Transformative Research & Evaluation with over 15 years of experience as a director, educational program developer, grant writer and manager, and program evaluator.  Dr. Lee is a Program Evaluator with expertise in qualitative and quantitative methodologies and has evaluated programs funded by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, and US Department of Health and Human Services.  These programs included professional development for PK-12 teachers and education leaders, computer science education, college and career readiness programs, behavioral and mental health interventions, and summer learning loss.  Dr. Lee’s professional experience includes work as a Project Coordinator for a multi-site evaluation and longitudinal research study of an early childhood literacy intervention, Director of an academic mentoring program that impacted over 700 students annually, and leader of several domestic and international study abroad and service learning trips.  Dr. Lee received a Bachelor’s of Science in International Affairs from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master’s of Public Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies Program with a concentration in Research, Measurement, and Statistics from Georgia State University.  Her current research projects focus on trauma-informed interventions for urban youth, utilization-focused evaluation and transformative praxis, identity and persistence amongst STEM undergraduate students at HBCUs, innovative practices in computer science at the secondary and undergraduate levels, and the impact of pre-college and career readiness programs.

Carrie Oliver serves as a Grant Writing and Research Consultant with over 8 years of experience in youth development, health education, curriculum development, grant writing, and program development. Carrie’s professional experience includes serving as a Health Promotion Specialist overseeing onsite health promotion for employees in over 80 counties in Southern Georgia, Special Projects Coordinator for a nonprofit organization that served the residents of 38 counties of Southwest Georgia, and a Counselor and Researcher for a HIV research project in the Emergency Care Center at Grady Memorial Hospital. Carrie received her Bachelor’s in Science in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Master’s in Public Health from Emory University with a Certificate in Socio-Contextual Determinants of Health. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist and a Certified Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor. Her professional interests are corporate wellness, youth development, and serving the educational and community needs of those in marginalized and underrepresented populations.

Amber Mason, Ph.D. serves as a Research and Program Evaluation Consultant with over 10 years of experience as an educator and program evaluator.  Dr. Mason is a former mathematics educator and taught high school students for 7 years in the Chicago area prior to beginning her doctoral studies.  Her work has involved research and evaluation studies of language and literacy development, school readiness outcomes, instructional practices, professional development, and family engagement for one of the largest early learning providers in the Atlanta Metropolitan area.  Dr. Mason also works as a Graduate Researcher in The Urban Child Study Center at Georgia State University, and has previously worked on several research projects in The Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence. Her work has led to the preliminary development of a psychometric instrument that seeks to more adequately measure family engagement in urban educational settings. Dr. Mason also serves as a Data Strategist for a research alliance between Atlanta-area schools, Georgia State University, center-based early learning providers, and several community organizations focused on Atlanta’s preschool to 3rd grade (P3) early childhood system. Dr. Mason received a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies with a concentration in Research, Measurement, and Statistics from Georgia State University.  She received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics from Spelman College and a Master’s of Science in Education from Quincy University.  Dr. Mason’s research interests lie in the area of mixed methods culturally responsive educational program evaluation.