Team
Principal Consultant
Steve Patty, Ph.D.
Steve has consulted in leadership development and impact evaluation for national organizations such as the YMCA of the USA and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, international organizations like MEND Central and Josiah Venture, and regional organizations like the nonprofit sector Labor Management Partnership of British Columbia.
He has designed and delivered regional leadership development programs for senior executives in nonprofit leadership (such as the Fellowship in Developmental leadership in Portland OR and Vancouver BC), leadership training for management teams (such as the City of Surrey), and leadership courses for young executives (University Club of Portland), among others.
Steve served as professor and department chair at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon where he taught courses in Leadership, Management, Educational Psychology, Research, Curriculum Development, and Human Development, among others. He then served as adjunct professor in research for the Ph.D. program in Business at the International University of Monaco.
He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and has been trained at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. His expertise lies in design of education and training, strategy and program development, and impact evaluation and measurement. He is a published author and frequent public speaker.
Associate Consultant
Annalise Albright Woods
Annalise has focused her career on implementing and managing education programs with a focus on educational equity and inclusion. She was most recently the program director for the Youth Music Project, a non-profit music school in Clackamas County, Oregon which seeks to make music accessible to all young people. Prior to that she spent seven years as an AmeriCorps program director with Metropolitan Family Service, developing and leading an education-focused program serving communities across the greater Portland area. She also spent several years as a SUN Community School Site Manager, managing afterschool and family engagement programs for students at an intermediate school in outer southeast Portland. Annalise has been a partner of Dialogues in Action since 2014 leading evaluation teams from MFS and YMP through Project Impact. With a strong background in arts and arts management, she is active in the Portland theater and arts community. She holds an MA in Educational Leadership from Portland State University and an MFA in theatrical sound design from the California Institute of the Arts.
Associate Consultant
Erica Bender, Ph.D.
Erica’s passion for evaluation stems from her academic training in Sociology, where she learned the power of qualitative research methods to uncover the deeper meanings and experiences that profoundly shape our lives. Erica earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC San Diego in 2018. Her research explored the growth and development of veterans-focused nonprofit organizations in San Diego.
Erica first engaged with Dialogues in Action as a participant in Project Impact. As a social scientist, she was immediately drawn to Project Impact’s evaluation model because of its foundation in sound research principles. Erica also valued Project Impact’s qualitative approach to observing real impact, in real people, in real time. She later went on to become a Project Impact coach, working with organizations throughout California to develop and discover their impacts.
In this work, Erica brings her years of experience as an award-winning educator to teach her teams proper research design and inspire a sense of excitement and wonder in the research process. She sees her consulting as a kind of teaching experience, with the same possibility for mutual insight and interest that electrifies the best classrooms. She believes that strong evaluation can not only build stronger organizations, but also more motivated leaders and staff.
Senior Associate
Jessamyn Luiz
Jessamyn is passionate about creating high-impact organizations where people can thrive. She believes that strong organizations are the key to creating strong individuals, families and communities.
Her career has focused on designing and managing programs to meet critical community needs in both the nonprofit and public sector. Jessamyn has been a leader in national service and educational organizations serving children and families of all backgrounds. She spent 7 years leading efforts to build systems to support growth with quality for Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc., a national service program focused on early childhood education, and led the turnaround of defunded Head Start programs with Acelero Learning. She also served as the Director of Education for the Pueblo of Tesuque tribal government in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Most recently, Jessamyn served as the AmeriCorps Program Officer with Oregon Volunteers, the state commission for volunteerism and service. In this role, she guided organizations in designing and refining AmeriCorps programs to serve Oregon communities in disaster preparedness, education, health and human services, and environmental stewardship. In 2013, she partnered with Dialogues in Action to bring Project Impact to Oregon AmeriCorps grantees to help them build the evidence base for their programs and demonstrate and deepen their impact on communities.
Jessamyn holds a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University in Environmental Analysis and Policy and studied in the Master of Science in Organization Development program at Pepperdine University.
Research Associate
Jennifer Manning
Jennifer Manning is trained as a qualitative researcher and has experience facilitating research projects primarily for the not-for-profit sector in Vancouver, British Columbia and throughout Canada.
Since emigrating to Canada from her native California in 1998, she has worked and volunteered consistently with multiple not-for-profit, charitable organizations - most notably, for the past 15 years, with the YMCA of Greater Vancouver and the YMCA World Urban Network. In addition to qualitative research, she has expertise within the domains of: Communications, Human Resources, Philanthropy and Fundraising, Training, Operations, Community Engagement, and International Relations.
Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Social Work Degree from California State University, Long Beach in 1996. Her education, training, and early experience as a Social Worker – with a humanist approach and focus on the growth, development, and potential of individuals, organizations, and communities – have dovetailed well with the work of Dialogues in Action and our belief in the value of developing people and our developmental approach to leadership, evaluation, and strategy.
Jennifer is proud to count herself among the graduates of the very first Project Impact cohort from 2007 and she has been thrilled by the success of Project Impact and other Dialogues in Action courses to build the capacity of those who lead and to deepen the impact of their organizations.
Associate Consultant
Sukh Shergill
Sukh is a practicing civic leader that has led multi-sectoral responses to significantly improve outcomes for vulnerable populations. He has 15 years of leadership experience in education and community planning. His work alongside business, government and community received the Premier’s Award for Innovation for developing sustainable approaches to social programming.
Most recently, Sukh has led organizations to scale up their impact by utilizing a developmental approach to achieve higher levels of engagement. These organizations were characterized by purposeful activity and commitment to exceptional experiences for those that it served. Moreover, these organizations demonstrated measurable positive impact that led to exponential increase in funding and partnership opportunities. Sukh took a national lead by establishing pillars for staff professional development and presented key aspects at the US Coalition for Community Education conference.
He has earned a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology and adopted a solution-focused clinical approach. Sukh also holds Bachelor’s degrees in both Education and Science. His leadership development practices are guided by his educational pedagogy that builds from individual and organizational strengths while concentrating on the adoption of new adaptive approaches.
Associate Consultant
Erin Upton, Ph.D.
Erin is a qualitative social scientist with a passion for engaging community and supporting transformation. Erin holds a doctorate in Earth, Environment and Society from Portland State University, where her research focused on understanding the human dimensions of complex environmental challenges. She has worked on research projects in North America, South Africa, and Australia; and is committed to elevating diverse community voices and advancing knowledge in applied, real-world contexts.
Erin has a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and French from the University of Oregon, and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia. Her breadth of experience spans the disciplines of geography, policy, environmental science, humanities, and design. She has worked designing healing gardens in healthcare settings as a landscape architect in New York City; and has management experience in the nonprofit arts sector and the Oregon wine industry. The common thread woven through Erin’s diverse experiences is the pursuit of deep learning about the connections between people and place.