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The Company » Staff

Steven LaFrance, Founder & Principal

is the founder and Principal of LFA Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping social profit organizations achieve their greatest possible impact. Over the course of 15 years, Steven has provided evaluation, research, and technical assistance services to hundreds of nonprofit organizations, foundations, and public agencies. Steven is a nationally recognized leader in the field of organizational effectiveness, with a focus on strategy development and the use of information to maximize social impact. Steven’s content expertise covers diverse issue areas including community health services, homelessness, early childhood care and education, youth development, juvenile justice, education, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, senior services, community economic development, and organizational development and effectiveness. Before consulting, Steven was a case manager for homeless youth, gaining a firsthand understanding of the challenging realities community-based organizations face. Steven received graduate training in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley and in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nancy Latham, Director of Research and Evaluation

 has an extensive background in social science research as well as a strong interest in the study of public welfare and social inequality. During her doctoral studies in Sociology at UC Berkeley, she focused on social stratification along racial, class, and gender lines. There she also honed her skills in quantitative and qualitative research, and developed strong expertise in research design. She brings these skills to all of her projects, investing her energy in helping project teams to develop robust evaluation designs. At LFA she works in a wide range of issue areas including housing and homelessness, education, and youth development. Nancy also has expertise in designing evaluations of policy advocacy, an emerging field of study in evaluation.

Andrew Robinson, Senior Consultant

 has been with LFA since its incorporation, having worked as a consultant since 1998. Andrew’s work is motivated by his desire to provide organizations that are committed to justice and ‘doing good’ with reliable data to support program planning, development, and refinement, as well as to offer innovative solutions to challenges in the nonprofit sector. Andrew is experienced in research and evaluation project management, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and process facilitation. His current work includes developing an evaluation system for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Nonprofit Support Program to conducting a capacity building assessment for the multi-funder initiative, Building Capacity for Organizational Resilience and Renewal. Andrew joined LFA after several years of leading a program to support and develop boards of directors in San Mateo, CA. He has twice presented his LFA work at the American Evaluation Association’s national conference. His direct experience in the nonprofit sector includes working for national service and civic engagement organizations. Andrew also taught GED to men on parole for two years. Andrew has a BA in English and American Literature from Brandeis University.

JT Taylor, Senior Consultant

, MPP, MPH, who joined LFA Group in 2006, has six years of experience providing evaluation, research, and technical assistance services to organizations in the social profit sectors, and has spent nearly 15 years working and volunteering in these sectors. JT’s evaluation and applied research experience spans the fields of public health, HIV prevention and care services, LGBT health and civil rights, youth development, housing, mental health, substance use, and criminal justice. JT’s strong technical skills in both quantitative and qualitative research, her extensive experience with non-profit and public organizations, and her deep commitment to social justice benefit every aspect of her consulting work. She enjoys using her consultant role to support organizations in creating sustainable structural change and equity for all communities. JT’s non-profit and consulting work has included a particular focus on reducing health inequities and improving cultural competence. At LFA, she leads the Cultural Humility Committee, an internal working group dedicated to facilitating ongoing organizational learning and developing tools and approaches for keeping LFA’s work relevant and responsive to our clients’ diverse values and cultural contexts. Current project work includes several evaluation and capacity-building projects for HIV service providers, as well as capacity-building projects to help organizations address the root causes of health inequities. JT holds Masters degrees in Public Health and Public Policy from UC Berkeley, where she also completed her undergraduate work in Social Welfare.  

Emily Boer Drake, Consultant

, MPA, joined LFA Group in 2006 and brings deep experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to her consulting practice. Her work at LFA has focused on strategic planning and evaluation, and she strives to empower clients with information so they can positively impact their communities. Emily’s project work at LFA has included strategic planning for Jamestown Community Center and the Communications Leadership Institute, managing an evaluation of arts advocacy organizations in California for the Hewlett Foundation, conducting the first ever study of the nonprofit sector in Marin County, and serving as project manager for several projects in the area of homelessness. Prior to LFA she was a management consultant at Technical Development Corporation (TDC) in Boston where she focused on providing strategic planning services and technical assistance to a variety of clients throughout New England. Her work included strategic planning for Boston’s largest performing arts organization, a merger feasibility analysis for two museums, sustainability planning for after-school programs, and analyzing data for a study on the use of long-term debt in local nonprofit organizations. Emily also worked at the Central New York Community Foundation, where she reviewed proposals and coordinated school-based initiatives in Syracuse, NY. She is a founding board member of Fitness Forward, a nonprofit that facilitates healthy lifestyles among youth via school-based programming. Emily has a BA in Art History and Psychology from Williams College and a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Eiko Sugano, Consultant

, MPH, joined LFA Group in 2008, after several years of managing and directing research-community collaborative projects with the goal of improving health among and implementing structural changes targeting high risk youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a strong background and extensive experience in HIV prevention, quantitative and applied research, coalition-building, and community planning processes. The combination of her skills and passion directed towards a more equitable society has been appropriately weaved in to her work at LFA. She is particularly committed to building the capacity of community-based organizations so that they have improved systems in place for program planning and evaluation. Her projects include an agency-wide evaluation and capacity-building of seven programs at Glide Foundation, an evaluation of the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative, and a field and market assessment for the African Grantmakers Affinity Group. She manages projects in the fields of HIV prevention and care, early childhood development, social justice, community-driven philanthropy, housing and youth development. Eiko has a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley.

India Alarcon, Consultant

 strives to promote social justice by empowering organizations with reliable research and evaluation services to effectively impact the communities they serve. Since joining the LFA team in 2005, India has worked on a variety of projects each with their own rich cultural contexts. She is a member of LFA’s Cultural Humility Committee which supports an effort to be intentional about enhancing LFA’s understanding of each of the diverse organizations we work with. India brings expertise in social science research, particularly within the areas of early childhood, youth development, and education. India is the project manager for the countywide multi-year evaluation of First 5 Solano Children and Families Commission which focuses on evaluating funded programs and services aimed at improving the lives of children prenatal to five years old and their families. India also manages a four-year evaluation of the Atlantic Philanthropies’ Elev8 Oakland Initiative to explore the impact of integrated support services in eight Elev8 Oakland middle schools. India’s current project portfolio also includes management of multi-year evaluations for San Mateo County’s Federal Adolescent Family Life Program, Delancey Street Foundation’s Life Learning Academy, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Environmental Solutions Forum. India has a BS in Economics from Saint Mary’s College of California.


Rachel Cuevas, Consultant

has a strong interest in using applied research to promote education and social justice in the community. She brings to LFA expertise in social science research, particularly within the areas of early childhood, youth development, and education. Before joining the LFA team in 2005, Rachel worked as a peer mentor for youth, an early childhood assistant teacher in both public and private school classrooms, and as a research assistant in infant studies at the Institute of Human Development at UC Berkeley. At LFA, Rachel currently manages a multi-year project with the First 5 Sonoma County Children and Families Commission, which includes evaluation of funded programs and services aimed at improving the health and well-being of children 0-5 and their families in Sonoma County. Rachel also manages a four-year evaluation of the Atlantic Philanthropies’ Oakland Elev8 Initiative implementation, using a case-study design to explore the impact of the national integrated services in schools model in Oakland middle schools. Recently, Rachel completed multi-year evaluations for the Homeless Children Network’s Community Development and Education Project, and the Foster Youth Housing Initiative project. Rachel has a BA in Psychology from Vassar College.

Kathleen Hentz, Associate Consultant

joined LFA Group in 2008. Her experience from government to non-profit sectors strengthens her understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the social profit sector, driving her to provide relevant and thoughtful research and evaluation services. At LFA Group, she works on projects in criminal justice, education, family support, HIV prevention capacity building, and basic needs services. Before joining LFA, she worked on multiple research projects including serving as a co-researcher on a participatory action research project that focused on HIV prevention with incarcerated women of color, as an HIV prevention counselor on a biomedical HIV prevention trial with gay/bi men, and as an outreach worker conducting street-based surveys and recruiting study participants. In addition to her research experience, she taught comprehensive sexuality education to high school students and conducted HIV and STI testing with youth. Kathleen is a member of the SF Department of Public Health’s HIV Research Section Community Advisory Group and has a BS in Biology and a BA in Music from UC San Diego as well as a Masters degree in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University.

Rachel Sax, Associate Consultant

, MPH, MPP joined LFA Group with a strong background in Maternal and Child Health and health policy, and a specific focus on adolescent reproductive health. She has experience working with quantitative and qualitative research methods and analysis. Prior to joining LFA Group, Rachel worked with a research team on a state-wide study that evaluated the potential impacts of parental notification laws on adolescent females’ use of family planning clinics for contraception and abortion services. She also has experience working in community health clinics on the provider level, and developing web-based wellness tools for chronic disease prevention. At LFA Group, Rachel is working on a range of projects including evaluations for Blue Shield of California Foundation’s Core Support Initiative, Hewlett Arts Education Grantees, Sonoma First Five, San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Reentry Programs, and San Mateo’s Federal Adolescent Family Life Program. Rachel holds bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Spanish from Northwestern University, and Master’s degrees in Public Health and Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Tanya Barretto, Associate Consultant

   comes to LFA with extensive experience in social science research and a passion to strengthen and empower underserved communities through social justice and educational equity. Prior to joining LFA, she served as a Program Assistant for an applied health policy research program of the University of California, Office of the President. While completing her BA in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, Tanya collaborated with a professor in an ethnographic longitudinal study by documenting language and literacy practices of Spanish-speaking students enrolled in religious instructions. She has also worked as an academic counselor, early childhood teacher assistant, peer mentor, team leader, and workshop facilitator. At LFA, Tanya helps develop and translate evaluation instruments, facilitates focus groups, manages quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and provides project managers with administrative support. She is also a part of Cultural Humility Committee, which was developed to provide frameworks and resources that will support LFA's effort to intentionally implement cultural humility approaches to evaluation and enhance our understanding of the organizations we work with. Tanya is currently working in multi-year evaluations of two county-wide First 5 Children and Families Commissions, the Elev8 Oakland (Integrated Services in Schools Model), San Mateo Community Schools Initiative, and the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative.

Judy Jarvis, Research Assistant

comes to LFA with a background in developmental psychology, media, and grassroots social justice organizing. She is dedicated to using rigorous research to help support programs and advocacy efforts for equality. Prior to joining LFA, she was Outreach Coordinator for NPR and the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s “Justice Talking.” While completing her BA at Vassar College, Judy co-founded an LGBT activist group, volunteered as a teacher for elementary school science trips, and worked as a peer writing consultant. At LFA, Judy helps develop survey instruments, manages and analyzes data, helps draft reports, and provides administrative support to project managers. Her current projects include multi-year evaluations for Elev8 Oakland (Integrated Services in Schools Model), Funders for Gay and Lesbian Issues, the Glide Foundation, the Environmental Solutions Forum, the LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership, and the First 5 Children and Families Commission for Solano Counties.

Samantha Chen, Research Assistant

, MPH, comes to LFA with a background in academic and community-based health-related research. Samantha is dedicated to using applied research to help medically underserved and minority populations. During and after receiving her BS in Food Science and Human Nutrition, Samantha worked as a research assistant and project coordinator at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii where she maintained food and supplement composition tables and supported cohort and intervention studies of diet and cancer. Samantha's culminating activity for her Master's in Public Health in Global Health focused on strengthening capacity of Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) serving agencies in outer San Francisco Bay Area Counties to increase access and utilization of HIV services among A&PI communities. At LFA, Samantha assists on several projects, developing logic models and data collection instruments, managing and analyzing data, and drafting reports. Her current projects include program evaluations for the Glide Foundation and San Francisco Sheriff's Department, as well as multi-year evolutions for the National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV Capacity Building Assistance Partnership, Blue Shield Foundation, and the American Association of Community Colleges’ National Plus 50 Initiative.

Laura Bekes, Research Assistant

, MA, joined LFA Group in 2008 with a strong interest in using research to promote social justice. She completed her master’s in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles with emphases in social stratification, education, race and ethnicity. Laura has held research positions with several different large-scale research projects including the Longitudinal Study of Academic Success, and the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access where she contributed to the California Education Opportunity Report which examines inequities in California’s public high schools. At LFA, Laura helps develop evaluation instruments, processes and analyzes data, and helps with reporting. She is currently working on multi-year evaluations with First 5 Sonoma County Children and Families Commission, the American Association of Community Colleges’ National Plus 50 Initiative, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Nonprofit Support Program. Other projects include the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, the Asian Pacific Islander National Cancer Survivors Network, Stop AIDS, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, and the Community Experience Partnership.

Jessica Xiomara García, Research Assistant

comes to LFA with a commitment to social justice, a bilingual/bicultural perspective and a long history of work with diverse communities. Jessica strongly believes that culturally and ethnically diverse communities have important contributions to make in redefining the evaluation field, which is why she values LFA’s cultural humility approach to evaluation. Prior to joining LFA, Jessica was the Director of Programs for an Oakland-based academic enrichment and scholarship foundation helping underserved Bay Area students who face significant challenges achieve success in high school, college and beyond. Jessica also worked as a bilingual Community Organizer in the Silicon Valley providing leadership development and computer literacy workshops to low-income Latina immigrant workers. Jessica attended the University of California, Santa Cruz where she pursued degrees in History and Latin American & Latina/o Studies and developed an oral history of migrants living in Santa Cruz County. At the University of Connecticut, she focused her graduate work on transnational migrant families and honed her research, instrument development, qualitative data collection and analysis skills. At LFA Jessica’s projects include First 5 Solano Children and Families Commission, the Hewlett Foundation’s Arts Education Grantees, the Community Learning Center, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Rhode Island Foundation, Oakland Youth Chorus, and Elev8 Oakland (Integrated Services in Schools Model).

Jo Ann Prompongsatorn, Business Manager

brings to the company over 8 years of leadership experience managing the operations of dynamic small business environments. She began as an auditor at Arthur Andersen where she provided accounting services to mid-size entrepreneurial organizations. Later in her career, she transitioned into the interior design and custom furniture industry where she worked alongside business owners and focused on finance, human resources, technology and strategy development. As LFA’s Business Manager and member of the internal solutions team, Jo Ann continuously engages in establishing processes that contribute to the overall effectiveness of the company. Her love for people and intrigue of positive office culture inspires a fondness for investigating organizational development on all levels.  Jo Ann is dedicated to nurturing collaborative atmospheres that empower its members to share in the common vision of a healthy happy community.  Jo Ann has a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting and a BA in Philosophy.

Annie Stuart, Office Manager

comes to LFA from a career in the arts. She has run non-profit theatre companies and served on many local boards and committees. Her path in theatre evolved from her work as an independent bookseller, and she holds certificates from the American Booksellers Association and The Northern California Children’s Booksellers’ Association. As an ABA Bookseller, she also worked on the annual Free Speech Campaign and Banned Book Week in conjunction with the National Library Association and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Currently, she is the co-host of the Betty’s List Book Club Discussion Series at Duboce Park Café, and the Associate Director of PlayGround - a theatre company for emerging Bay Area Playwrights. She is a published writer whose articles and reviews have been published in Cups: The Café Journal of NYC and SF, The Mill Valley Literary Review, and Lambda. She holds a BA in Psychology and English from Dominican College. Annie is thrilled to be able to blend her creativity and love of the non-profit world here at LFA, taking charge of Operations and the day to day running of the office.

Jonathan Vogeler, Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator

brings a wide range of administrative experience to LFA, particularly within the nonprofit sector.  While working toward his BA in English at the University of Massachusetts, he was an office assistant at Science & Theology News Magazine.  He also did regular volunteer work for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, doing intake for new clients and providing legal resources to the LGBT community. More recently, he was the Receptionist/Administrative Assistant at the headquarters of Community Builders, Inc., a national housing nonprofit.  He also did work for two immigration clinics, constructing applications for refugees seeking asylum in the US.  Jonathan now acts as an assistant to Steven and Nancy, while aiding Jo Ann and Annie with LFA’s daily operations and efficiency.  In addition, he provides project work support, including editing, report production, and formatting.  He continues to be passionately interested in human rights work, particularly in the areas of LGBT rights, immigration, and homelessness. 


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