Elevating the shared space for place-based funders
Combining our expertise in equity-centered evaluation and learning design, we’ve built a space where those conversations can take root and grow. What started as a response to a clear need is growing into a thriving community of practice, one that supports funders of place-based learning and evaluation as they reflect on and shape how they approach their work.
Our Advisors
Talia facilitates equitable and empowering evaluation processes that support an organization-wide culture of learning and improvement. Her work is grounded in an appreciation for the realities and complexities of systems change, shaped by experience as an educator, evaluator, and learning designer across nonprofit organizations, public schools, and informal learning environments.
Before joining the Endowments, she was a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research & Development Center, where she managed a multi-year evaluation of a public-private school redesign partnership. Talia is passionate about Pittsburgh and is thrilled to raise her two children in her hometown.
She/Her
Learning & Evaluation Officer
The Heinz Endownments
Talia Stol
Dr. Kimberly Spring leads efforts to advance culturally responsive and equity-focused practices and to develop evidence and data for programs, policies, and practices that support the well-being of children, youth, and young adults.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2013, she worked as a research and policy analyst at the federal agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service. She received her PhD in sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York City.
She/Her
Director of research & evaluation
annie e. casey foundation
Kimberly Spring
Huilan leads evaluation strategy and system building to support efforts that advance thriving children, working families, and equitable communities.
Since joining the foundation in 2002, she’s held roles spanning evaluation, education, and innovation, collaborating with staff, grantees, and evaluators to improve philanthropic practice. She previously held multiple research and evaluation roles at a large child welfare agency and taught at Western Michigan University. She has also served on the American Evaluation Association board and has published widely on evaluation and early childhood education.
She/Her
Director of learning & impact
w.k. kellogg foundation
Huilan Y. Krenn
Brita partners with colleagues and community organizations to develop philanthropic strategies, understand community impact, and build capacity.
Since joining their team in 2020, she’s worked to ensure evaluation is an approachable, inclusive, and culturally responsive tool to drive learning and decision-making. Before joining Houston Endowment, Brita spent over a decade in Minneapolis working as an evaluation and research consultant and as an internal evaluator for nonprofit organizations.
She/Her
leader of learning & evaluation
houston endownment
Brita Blesi
Our Advisors
Steph leads learning and evaluation activities and act as grants manager/system administrator for the grants management system.
Originally from Arizona’s Sonoran desert, they have a passion for the natural world and sense of adventure that has led them to work in a variety of roles, from studying bottlenose dolphins in Florida to supervising at a luxury hotel in New Mexico. They believe in standing up for the most vulnerable, and are excited to learn from Headwaters’ staff and partners.
They/Them
Knowledge Manager
headwaters foundation
Steph Schilling
Our Founders
...by equipping communities, especially communities of color, to collect, analyze, interpret, and use their own data.”
“We create more equitable systems...
Martena's philosophy:
...establishes a vital avenue for communities and philanthropies to collaborate as equals, sharing insights and decision-making and growing together."
“Place-based learning...
Jennifer's philosophy:
Martena Reed has spent more than ten years working in learning and evaluation, with a focus on helping philanthropy and nonprofits build approaches that are participatory and grounded in community priorities. She is the co-founder of ELEVATE, where she brings a perspective shaped by her experience as a funder of place-based learning and evaluation. She understands what funders are navigating and what it takes to support learning that stays connected to community.
She proudly calls Baltimore home, where raising her family and building community in her own life continue to shape how she approaches this work.
...establishes a vital avenue for communities and philanthropies to collaborate as equals, sharing insights and decision-making and growing together."
“Place-based learning...
Jennifer's philosophy:
Jenny Marsack has worked in learning and evaluation for more than a decade, with a focus on helping philanthropy build place-based learning and evaluation practices rooted in local context and community expertise. She is the co-founder of ELEVATE, where she brings deep experience in facilitation and learning design to help funders build learning systems around the questions they most want to explore.
She lives in Chicago, where motherhood continues to shape how she thinks about place and the people who will inherit what we build now.
...by equipping communities, especially communities of color, to collect, analyze, interpret, and use their own data.”
“We create more equitable systems...
Martena's philosophy:
Martena Reed
Co-Founder
She/Her
Jennifer Marsack
Co-Founder
She/Her
Martena Reed
Co-Founder
She/Her
Jennifer Marsack
Co-Founder
She/Her
Our Founders
Elevate Team
Elevate Team
Kristina Talarek
Design Associate
She/Her
Richada Brown
Executive Assistant
She/Her
Shardae Amey
Evaluation Associate
She/Her
Alicia Layfield
Marketing Director
She/Her
