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Rachel Estrella

Principal & Director / Equity, Education & Community Change Division

She/her

Projects:
Evaluation of the MacArthur Foundation’s Technology in the Public Interest Strategy, Evaluation of Children and Youth Investments for the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, Evaluation Framework for Heising-Simons Foundation’s Families Lead California Initiative

Education:
PhD, Education, University of California, Los Angeles; BA, Mass Communications and Psychology, Universtiy of California, Berkeley

About Rachel

Rachel is a Principal and the Division Director for the Equity, Education, and Community Change Division at SPR. Rachel enjoys leveraging her 20 years of experience in research and evaluation and her expertise as a curriculum developer, facilitator, and teacher, to support strategic learning and evaluation across a range of equity-focused efforts.

Rachel has extensive experience working collaboratively to ensure that evaluation efforts result in findings and learnings that are useful for clients as well as their partner organizations and the communities they serve. She has led multiple mixed-method evaluations focused on field-building, education, youth development, early childhood education, advocacy, health equity, racial equity, and arts education. Rachel believes there is a place for both rigor and heart in evaluation and works hard to ensure that her evaluation efforts reflect values rooted in equity, honesty, courage, and kindness.

Rachel received her Ph.D in Education from the University of California at Los Angeles and her B.A. in Psychology and Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley. In her spare time, she enjoys cuddling with her pup and attending the performances of her stunningly creative, talented, and big-hearted children, all the while giving thanks to the universe and wondering how she got so lucky.