Experience/Clients

Current Projects

BUILD PODER

Client: California State University, Northridge. PIs – Crist Khachikian, Carrie Saetermoe, Gabriela Chavira and Maggie Shiffrar.
Project Info: Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER) is the single largest grant ever awarded at California State University, Northridge and is an undergraduate research training program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In a supportive community, sophomores, juniors, and seniors take classes and work directly with professors on research projects that relate to health – from the molecular to the planetary! From public health to philosophical frameworks for pain, we seek to generate a vibrant, socially responsible and open environment for asking new research questions and using new methods to reduce health disparities.
CARE role: The CARE executive committee began working with the BUILD PODER PIs on the grant proposal submission assisting with the research and evaluation plans. Since being funded CARE staff has worked with the BUILD PODER PIs as the local external evaluation team in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health’s Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) that is coordinating the evaluation nationally across all of the BUILD sites.

Client: California State University, Northridge College of Health and Human Development. PI – Sloane Burke.
Project Info: The overall goal of CAMINO is to increase the capacity of CSUN to address specific needs of Hispanic post-baccalaureate students in health related disciplines and to improve their academic attainment in order to ultimately increase Hispanic participation in allied health professions.
CARE role: CARE staff are working as the external evaluation team for the CAMINO project

Client: California State University, Northridge. PI – Ivan Cheng
Program Info: The CREATE project is aimed to improve student achievement through the use of technology in implementing the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM). Specifically, the program will support teachers - both pre-service and in-service - in creating learning activities aligned with CCSSM through the use of a tablet-based application developed specifically for this project and supported by structured teacher collaboration.
CARE role: CARE staff began working with the project PI in developing the research and evaluation plans for the i3 grant proposal. Since being funded CARE has continued to work as the external evaluation team for the CREATE program and has collaborated with the Department of Education’s national evaluation coordination team.

Client: California State University, Northridge. PI – John Reveles
Program Info: The project aims to evolve CSUN’s teacher preparation to meet the needs of the new generation of educators through a five-year, multi-phase initiative that combines Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and Responsive Teaching Cycle (RTC) pedagogies.
CARE role: CARE staff began working with the project PIs in developing the research and evaluation plans for the New Generation of Educators grant proposal. Since being funded, CARE has continued to work as the external evaluation team for the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning program and continued its collaboration with CSU and Bechtel foundation representatives.

Client: California State University, Northridge. PI – Bethany Rainisch
Project Info: A campus and community partnership to serve those at risk for substance abuse and HIV.Services include both rapid HIV testing and telehealth (in collaboration with the Tarzana Treatment Center) for alcohol and substance abuse.
CARE role: A CARE staff member is working as one of the external evaluators for the START project.

Client: California State University, Northridge Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORSP). PIs –Carrie Saetermoe and Crist Khachikian.
Project Info: The Scholar Academies are a collection of faculty development programs designed to increase the quantity and strengthen the quality of extramural proposals and to encourage the infusion of research into curricula. Each academy will include a number of experienced faculty coaches who have the desire to work closely with colleagues within or across disciplines. Faculty scholars and coaches commit to regular meetings to discuss various aspects of grantsmanship and research-intensive curricula and to work on developing proposals or modifying programs.
CARE role: CARE staff worked as the external evaluation team conducting surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with both coaches and trainees in order to improve the program and report program successes to the project PIs.

Client: California State University, Northridge Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORSP). PI - Associate Vice President Crist Khachikian.
Project Info: This project consisted of the evaluation of the 4500 grants database entries collected by the office of Research and Graduate Studies (RGS) over the past 15 years at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). The current database consists of pre-populated fields concerning grant proposals that were submitted by CSUN faculty and includes limited information about the proposals and the principal investigator (e.g., granting agency, PI name, department, amount requested, award amount, etc.).
CARE role: CARE staff worked with staff from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies to conduct an evaluation and analysis of their grants database. Project goals included identifying appropriateness/completeness of database fields, combining the grants database with databases from CSUN’s Office of Institutional Research and analyses of the grants database information (e.g., by agency type (federal, state, local, etc.), college, gender, ethnicity, and number of years the PI has worked at CSUN).