Bio

Felicia Sullivan is a director of research, evaluation, & analytics at JFF (Jobs for the Future). She joined JFF in 2018.  Dr. Sullivan’s portfolio seeks to make data and research insights actionable. She leads several monitoring, evaluation, and metric development workstreams in support of Verizon’s corporate social responsibility effort, Citizen Verizon. She continues to bring a research lens to JFF’s learning agenda around workforce credentials, technology-enabled learning interventions, and digital jobs working with training providers such as edX, IBM SkillsBuild, and Google Career Certificates. She also just finalized a guide to navigating career decisions for adolescents and a research-practice partnership in New Hampshire that created assessment rubrics for important employability skills such as self-direction, collaboration, creativity, and communication. 

Prior to joining JFF, Dr. Sullivan was a senior researcher at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. There she worked on diverse research and evaluations via mixed methods to inform policy and practice toward greater equity in the civic and political spheres for marginalized and disconnected young people.  

Dr. Sullivan has more than 27 years of experience teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). She specializes in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, nonprofit organization and management, civic and community engagement, and human development with a focus on adolescent behavior and skill development. She is also president of the Massachusetts Media Fund which seeks to grow and strengthen independent journalism across the Commonwealth of Massachusets.

Dr. Sullivan’s community-based practice has been in multi-ethnic, urban settings developing innovative programs for diverse community needs.  Her home and personal civic and political work are centered in Lowell, MA, USA. 

Current research and evaluation interests:

  • Impact measurement systems design and implementation for decision-making and improvement
  • Efficacy and scaling of technology learning interventions for workforce advancement with a strong equity lens
  • Institutional design, organizational theory, and links to political participation
  • Human development and organizational learning in community-based settings
  • Self-organization and peer learning networks
  • Youth development and out-of-school-time programming
  • The social impact of science and technology development
  • Media, communications, arts, and culture for community development, civic engagement, and political action

Key Skills: research, analysis & assessment; monitoring & evaluation; leadership & development of inclusive research & evaluation teams; strategic planning; program development, training & curriculum development; technology planning & communications; fiscal management & fund development; strong written & verbal communication skills; creative problem-solving ability; ability to think in global integrative terms

Key Values:

  • Connection – fostering networks that build collective strength
  • Capacity – building organizational and individual skills that are able to sustain and grow for long-term success
  • Cognition – creating environments where knowledge and exploration are driving forces for innovation
  • Cooperation – developing systems and supports that are inclusive and build strength out of many
  • Creativity – supporting intuitive processes that yield new ways of doing and achieving
  • Compassion – working from a stance of tolerance and respect for all