Partners

Karen Shastri, Ph.D., C.P.A., is an associate professor of Accounting at the Katz Graduate School of Business. She focuses on research issues related to costs efficiencies and benefits, and financial matters in the for-profit, not-for-profit and governmental sectors. Recent projects include an evaluation of video arraignments and electronic booking processes for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as well as an evaluation of the state’s community oriented policing program, analyses of the impact of changes in the healthcare market on healthcare entities and the cost-effectiveness of services associated with substance abuse treatment programs. She also has worked as a consultant on several cost control projects. She is past President of and continues to serve on the Board of Directors for Renewal, Inc., a Pittsburgh based non-profit firm that specializes in Community Corrections Programs and substance abuse treatment programs. Her areas of concentration in teaching graduate and undergraduate students have focused primarily on cost effectiveness and operational efficiencies.

Mary A. Hansen, Ph. D., is an assistant professor in the School of Education and Social Sciences at Robert Morris University. Her research focus is on educational measurement and assessment, including design and technical issues related to large-scale test development and classroom assessment practices. She serves as a research consultant on various projects, currently including the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) grant. She has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in curriculum design, quantitative research methods, assessment, program evaluation and statistical analyses. Dr. Hansen earned an M.A. (1997) in statistics, and M.S. (1999) and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in Research Methodology from the University of Pittsburgh.

An Lewis is a Geographic Information System (GIS) expert with over 7 years of professional GIS experience. She has worked in many disciplines using GIS to provide visual and spatial analyses. These include: social services, urban planning, policy, economic development, civic engineering, and public safety. She holds a two Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to her GIS consulting work, she serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and California University of Pennsylvania teaching GIS and information technology courses to both graduate and undergraduate students.

Cynthia D. Zubritsky, Ph. D., is the Director of Integrated Primary Care and Behavioral Health Initiatives for the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research. Dr. Zubritsky has extensive experience in management and organizational issues in behavioral healthcare systems, including integrated systems design, outcome measurement, quality assurance measurement, process evaluation and the design and implementation of services for integrated care and of cultural competency initiatives for behavioral health systems. She is the founder and Director of the Delaware Evaluation and Research Institute (DERI), a state-based academic-liaison partnership with the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH). The DERI serves as the research arm of the DSAMH and works with the DSAMH to develop grant proposals, provide technical assistance to their community mental health and hospital psychiatric programs and identify and implement statewide evaluation and research-based studies. She has been supported by private foundations such as Pew to develop intervention studies for vulnerable populations programs and has served as the primary investigator of NIH and SAMHSA sponsored research. Dr. Zubritsky has developed national system standards, provider guidelines and clinical competencies for public sector behavioral healthcare programs for four treatment populations, including children and adolescents and five ethnic groups.