Wendi L. Siebold
PRESIDENT & SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Wendi Siebold, M.A., M.P.H. is the President and a Senior
Research Associate at Strategic Prevention Solutions. For over
17 years, Wendi has specialized in the assessment of
organizational and community capacity for domestic violence
response and prevention, violence prevention research, program
planning and evaluation, and provides evaluation capacity-
building training using a participatory approach. She holds
degrees in Health Behavior & Health Education and Community
Psychology, which afford her a well-balanced approach that
emphasizes scientific rigor within a realistic community context.
She has specialized in the prevention of gender-based violence,
and is recognized at both state and national levels for her work
to prevent and address intimate partner abuse and sexual
violence.
Wendi has served as project director and principal investigator
on statewide prevention initiatives and program evaluations,
developed data collection instruments, and has been responsible for both quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis and report writing. She has been contracted to write evaluation and planning tools and trainings for multiple funding organizations, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Justice and State governments.
Wendi is a national speaker and writer on topics related to organizational and evaluation capacity building, prevention planning and evaluation. She has participated in national expert panels for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Violence Prevention, and is recognized as a national expert in the prevention of intimate partner and sexual violence. She was an invited researcher at the White House, Office of the Vice President’s, Expert Panel on Teen Dating Violence in December 2010. She also works closely with State Departments of Health in California, Alaska, Montana and Washington.
Wendi was born in California and currently resides in Juneau, Alaska.
Brittany Freitas Murrell
VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH & TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE DIRECTOR, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Brittany Freitas Murrell, Ph.D., completed her final Ph.D. graduate requirements at the University of Alaska Anchorage in Clinical-Community Psychology, and has worked in counseling, teaching, and evaluative capacities across Alaska. She has provided evaluation capacity-building training, program planning and evaluation services, and conducted needs assessments for non-profit and tribal entities. As a behavioral health clinician, Brittany has provided individual and group therapy in outpatient and primary care settings. She utilizes the dual focus of her training (clinical-community psychology) to produce well-rounded and empirically-grounded research and practice. Her training emphasizes the balance of evidence-based and scientifically rigorous practices with real-world context application.
Brittany seeks opportunities for collaborative, enriching partnerships that result in context-based, appropriate data collection and interpretation. She has worked at both state and national levels for prevention work addressing intimate partner violence and substance abuse. Brittany has instructed college-level courses, partnered with tribal colleges to develop apprentice-style curriculum, and provided speaking and training to early interventionists and providers in Alaska. Brittany has served as project lead and principal investigator for numerous projects. Topics include: therapy outcomes related research, attitudes and intentions towards help-seeking, prevention of child sexual abuse initiatives, evaluation of patient satisfaction, community-readiness assessments, statewide prevention initiatives, needs assessments, coalition building and support, and process and outcome evaluations.
Brittany has experience in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, data collection, and analysis. She has authored several research publications and a book chapter and currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
Lexi Prunella
CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER, EVALUATION & PLANNING DIRECTOR, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Lexi Prunella, MPH., C.H.E.S., holds a master’s degree in Public Health Promotion and Health Behavior from Portland State University and a degree in Health Education from Western Oregon University. She began her career in the nonprofit behavioral healthcare sector in Southeast Alaska as a senior health promotion program manager and grants administrator. Since 2014, Lexi has been a key personnel overseeing the evaluation of the CDC-funded DELTA FOCUS violence prevention program in Florida, and has coordinated the collection and analysis of school wide survey data for DELTA FOCUS in Idaho.
Before coming to SPS in 2014, she worked in the Division of Public Health for the State of Alaska, and focused her energy in evaluating a statewide healthy relationship curriculum and engaging stakeholders in sexual health promotion and sexual violence prevention among foster youth, allowing her to build many local and national community partnerships. Ms. Prunella is a Certified Health Education Specialist and a trained Prime for Life substance abuse intervention instructor with experience in community assessments, strategic planning, health program planning and evaluation, and social norms marketing.
Her professional passions surround healthy sexuality, gender spectrum and sexual diversity, adolescent development, and the prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. She also has served as a University level wellness educator and adjunct professor, where her community outreach and program development efforts addressed substance abuse prevention, personal safety education, dating violence and sexual assault prevention, healthy sexuality education, and sexual orientation and gender identity topics.
Ms. Prunella has strong background in data collection and analysis, report development and delivery, and working with diverse populations. She has experience reviewing and synthesizing wide nets of community level data, having implemented a Health Impact Assessments in Idaho, a statewide violence prevention policy scan in Florida, and community needs and community readiness assessments in Southeast Alaska.
Ms. Prunella was born and raised in Southeast Alaska and currently resides in Palmer, Alaska.
Jessy Lyons
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Jessy Lyons, M.A., brings over 15 years of experience in program growth, management, development, and evaluation. Ms. Lyons has worked at the national, state, and community levels managing a variety of projects focused on health promotion, disease mitigation, and violence prevention. She has managed many large-scale, national prevention and evaluation projects for federal agencies, including the US Department of Defense, US Air Force, and the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women.
Jessy is a seasoned program evaluator with extensive experience designing evaluation plans and tools, conducting both quantitative and qualitative research, conducting literature reviews, and reporting findings to key stakeholders and partners. She is skilled in data-driven decision making, continuous quality improvement, and bridging theory to organizational practice. Jessy has extensive experience working with a variety of partners and funders with whom she enjoys forging strong, fruitful partnerships that promote the safety and wellbeing of all.
Ms. Lyons holds a Master of Arts degree in Gender Studies from the University of Louisville where she focused on public health approaches to the prevention of gender-based violence. Jessy currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky where you can find her baking pies, singing karaoke, and chasing after her two young sons.
Patricia Reyes
DIRECTOR OF CALIFORNIA OPERATIONS,
SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Patricia Reyes, M.P.H., brings over twenty-five years of experience evaluating a range of risk reduction and asset building efforts including those addressing access to health and mental health services for children, youth and families; substance abuse prevention and treatment; violence prevention; and school readiness and youth development. Pat is skilled in a variety of quantitative and qualitative tool design, data collection and analysis methodologies including: surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, observations, program record review, electronic data sets, and textual analysis.
Pat seeks opportunities for evaluation capacity building and is currently the Empowerment Evaluator for a CDC-funded violence prevention project awarded to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence that is focused on adolescent dating abuse and the role of school policies. Working with programs to improve delivery of behavioral health services is another of her key areas of concentration. Pat brings to her work with clients the perspective that evaluation is a tool both for making decisions and achieving excellence. She embraces a utilization-focused and participatory philosophy of evaluation planning, implementation, and reporting of findings. Ms. Reyes earned a Master’s of Public Health degree in Behavioral Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley and B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Irvine. She currently resides in the Bay Area of California
Ana Herrera
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE III
Ana Herrera, Ph.D., M.P.H., is from Los Angeles, California. As an alumna of the CDC Public Health Scholars Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program, she brings a wealth of expertise in public health and health policy. She is a mixed-methods health disparities researcher with more than 10 years of experience working with community and academic organizations on a variety of research and evaluation projects focused on addressing chronic disease prevention, childhood obesity, food insecurity, educational inequalities and tobacco prevention among underserved populations.
She is skilled in both quantitative and qualitative tool design, data collection and analysis methodologies, including survey development, focus groups, interviews, GIS and statistical modeling. Ana earned her Ph.D. in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Texas at Austin. She also holds an M.P.H. in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences from University of Texas School of Public Health.
In her spare time, Ana enjoys spending time with her family, napping, baking, reading and traveling the world!
Emily Singerhouse
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE II & MEDIA MANAGER
Emily Singerhouse (she/her) graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a degree in Political Science and Global Studies with a focus of human rights. In Minneapolis, she received training as a qualitative researcher with a community-based participatory research approach in the academic sector. Emily studies the issues of human trafficking, sexual violence, domestic violence, youth exploitation, and community wellbeing. She enjoys working in transdisciplinary teams, involving community-members at every step of the research process, and creating easily accessible dissemination resources. Emily has authored several publications and a book chapter; all of which offer lasting community solutions and contributions to the field.
In her free time, Emily enjoys spending time outdoors with her dog and loved ones, playing volleyball in the local league, and creating graphic designs. Emily currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
Aftan Lynch
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE II
Aftan Lynch, M.P.A., holds a master’s degree from the University of Colorado in Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit organizations. Her professional background includes domestic violence prevention at the local level and state levels, coalition building, youth leadership and health and wellness promotion. She is experienced in writing community plans and needs assessments that emphasize data-driven responses to individualized needs and assets; and she has facilitated teams to perform risk assessments, logic models and asset maps—all through an evaluation lens.
Aftan has been a member of the Alaska Wellness Coalition leadership team for the State of Alaska and has worked to support a statewide marketing project promoting positive youth behaviors. She embraces the concept that evaluation-led community efforts create the most meaningful and lasting results. Aftan’s skillset includes grant writing, graphic design, group facilitation and marketing development. She uses these skills to create evaluation tools and design reports and templates tailored to the unique needs of clients.
Aftan enjoys spending time outdoors, hiking, fishing and boating around the beautiful bays and inlets surrounding Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska—where she resides with her family.
Rachel Wintz
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Rachel Wintz was born and raised in Alaska. She attended the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), where she conducted community-based research on a wide variety of social issue topics in conjunction with the Institute of Social & Economic Research, UAA Office of Undergraduate Research, UAA Justice Center, and the Center for Community Engagement and Learning. She received a degree in Sociology, Spanish and Civic Engagement from UAA. She went on to work in the international development field in Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru. When she’d soaked in enough sun, she came back to Alaska and entered the violence prevention field where she served as the Statewide Coordinator for Girls on the Run of Greater Alaska.
Rachel uses the skills she’s developed around the world to bring a unique perspective to the Administrative Manager position at SPS. When she’s not hiking, singing, or hitting the beach near her Southern California office location, she enjoys providing excellent service to SPS’s clients!
Leila Bernal
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Leila, from the San Francisco Bay Area, brings 13+ years of administrative experience in managing client and office operations. She has worked in the construction and finance industry working collaboratively with C-Level Executives and Project Managers with exceptional ability to facilitate all aspects of internal and external communications, support the day-to-day administrative, financial and operational functions.
In her free time, she enjoys quality time with her family exploring new eateries and surrounding cities, reading, practicing health and wellness and educating herself through the Autism community so she can continue to be an advocate for her son.
Consultants
SPS makes use of consultants to keep expertise high and project costs down. Our consultants are highly trained in community research and evaluation, and are hired on a project-specific basis. Recent consultants include:
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Jennifer Burkhart, Ph.D., Solstice Consulting (Alaska)
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Nicole Smith, Ph.D., MPH, Independent Consultant (Montana)
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Jo Volkheimer, M.S., Independent Consultant (Alaska)
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Valerie Ryan, Ph.D., M.S., Independent Consultant (Pennsylvania)
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Sharon M. Wasco, Ph.D., Independent Consultant (Ohio)
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Gretchen Clarke, M.P.H., ICF International (Alaska)
Join the team
We are committed to delivering innovative solutions to inform programming and empower our clients to create lasting changes in community wellness. We hire the best practitioners in the field to provide quality service and expertise on the wide array of projects we support.
Work with SPS to use your talents and skills to address and prevent social issues!
Now Hiring
Independent contractor
SPS is looking to hire well qualified individuals who would like to join our team on a part-time contractual basis. If you are an independent contractor interested in working with SPS on a project, please send us your resume and project interest and we’ll connect!
To apply:
Submit resume and portfolio to Leila Bernal, SPS Office Administrator. If you have any questions, please contact Leila by e-mail at Leila@StrategicPreventionSolutions.com, or by phone at (877) 791-4167 (Ext. 707)
SPS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment based upon race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender status, age, marital status, handicap, or any other reason not related to employment. All successful applicants will be required to show proof of legal right to accept employment in the US.