Laura Schaffer is a Research Analyst who works with nonprofits, government agencies, and foundations to help them understand their data to spur action. Laura believes when people have and understand the information they need, they can break barriers and power structures to make positive change happen in their communities. Laura has worked with a diverse set of social programs and initiatives, ranging from school magnet programs, healthy eating/active living, childhood health care, reproductive health, immigrant rights, juvenile justice, homelessness, workforce development, empathy networks for zoos and aquariums.
Laura’s quantitative expertise in survey development, complex system data analysis, and basic and advanced statistics in combination with her data visualization skills have allowed clients to learn from and make important decisions about their work. Her most recent accomplishment with a juvenile justice initiative was compiling and analyzing complex system data of over 12,000 youth to assess the initiative’s implementation across the state and youth outcomes during probation.
Laura holds a master’s degree in Program Evaluation from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s degree in General Psychology from Colorado State University.