Meet Our Team

Lisa is an epidemiologist and public health researcher with more than 15 years of experience in health services research, health care quality measurement, quantitative data analysis and health policy. Additionally, she has extensive experience in project management particularly working with foundations on grants management activities (RFP development, contracting, monitoring and evaluation). She is also an expert in stakeholder engagement with academic, research, patient, and community partners, community-based health studies, and program evaluation.

Deputy Director, CYC
Founder, Evidence For All

Matt is a change-maker, facilitator, and community-centered leader with expertise in program design and implementation science. Matt’s career has been shaped by and continues to hinge on the engagement of community, provider, and system partners in the design and implementation of solutions to a wide range of opportunities and challenges. Matt has served as Deputy Director of CYC since 2014. In this role, Matt oversees the installation and initial implementation of CYC’s entire portfolio of evidence-based programs and strategies.

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Dr. Anderson is the Assistant Director of the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia. She provides direct oversight and works closely with staff who lead and support active research projects. Dr. Anderson also oversees the dissemination of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) and the Strong African American Teen Program (SAAF-T), including program promotion, training coordination, and technical assistance for organizations implementing SAAF.

Leon has worked in state, medical, school-based, and clinical outpatient and inpatient social work fields since 2010 in urban, rural, and community-based settings serving children, adolescents, adults, elders, veterans, reintegrated citizens, individuals with developmental disabilities, individuals with TBI, families, and communities with significant service needs. His experience includes individual, couple, family, and group therapies, along with strategic community prevention work as a clinician, case manager, presenter, program director, and grant writer.

Margaret is a founding partner of Mainspring Consulting, a national consulting firm that works with foundations, policymakers, and state and community leaders to design effective investments for families and communities. She has provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of public and private leaders around the country focused on financing and sustaining effective initiatives. Margaret has conducted research and produced publications exploring funding sources and financing strategies to support education, youth development, prevention, and child welfare initiatives for children, families, and communities with significant service needs.

Laurie is the Principal of Pilina Pathways LLC working as a consultant and mediator. “Pilina” is the Hawaiian word for relationship. Laurie is the founder and recently retired Executive Director of EPIC ʻOhana, a nonprofit organization serving families, children and youth in the child welfare system. “EPIC”, which stands for Effective Planning and Innovative Communication, reflects the organization’s goal of breaking down barriers between social workers, families, government systems and others. EPIC is the backbone organization for a network of agencies and foundations called Nā Kama a Hāloa, which seeks to improve outcomes for children and families involved in Hawaiʻi’s child welfare system.

Megan is the Systemic Change Lead at Dartington Service Design Lab, specializing in systems thinking and collaborative approaches to drive meaningful change. She brings expertise in community-based system dynamics, qualitative research, and collaborative design to support the development of impactful, responsive services. Megan leads several place-based systems change initiatives in the UK working to create impactful solutions with community and system stakeholders.

Tim is CEO at Dartington Service Design Lab and is responsible for shaping the ideas and strategic direction of the organization. Tim has spent more than two decades working with numerous public systems, charities and foundations to help shape a series of bold investments and experiments designed to improve child outcomes. Underpinning all his work is a deep commitment to generating and using evidence, fused with human-centered and systemic design approaches.

Zaid Gayle is the Executive Director and co-founder of Peace4Kids, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting youth in foster care in South Los Angeles. With over 25 years of experience in community leadership and program development, Zaid has been instrumental in shaping policies and initiatives that support transition-age youth in foster care.

His youth advocacy and media strategy campaigns played a key role in the passage of California’s AB12, which extended foster care services from age 18 to 21. He has trained youth advocates nationwide, testified before lawmakers, and contributed to research that improves services for the nearly 400,000 youth in foster care in the U.S. Beyond direct service, Zaid has developed innovative training programs, including a certificate for youth-serving professionals in trauma-informed care at the University of San Diego and a peer support specialist program at Loyola Marymount University.

Recognized for his impact, Zaid was a finalist for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award and received the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leaders Award. He continues to champion responsive services and improved policy and practice in child welfare through his work on the Commission for Children and Families and related systems improvement efforts.

Deputy Director, CYC
Founder, Evidence For All

Matt Billings is a change-maker, facilitator, and community-centered leader with expertise in program design and implementation science. Matt’s career has been shaped by and continues to hinge on the engagement of community, provider, and system partners in the design and implementation of solutions to a wide range of opportunities and challenges.

Matt has served as Deputy Director of the Children and Youth Cabinet of Rhode Island (CYC) since 2014. In this role, Matt has helped grow CYC from a $200K organization to a $2M organization, overseeing the installation and initial implementation of CYC’s entire portfolio of evidence-based programs and strategies. Matt has also led the conceiving, designing, and convening of CYC’s Evidence For All organization; presents and facilitates/coaches nationally on community engagement, program design, and implementation; and always ensures a relentless focus on meaningful participant engagement and service relevance.

Matt was previously the program director at Inspiring Minds (IM). A Providence College grad, he also spent two years as program director for City Year Rhode Island, and respective one-year assignments with AmeriCorps Habitat for Humanity in Durham, North Carolina, and AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps in Washington, D.C.

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Amanda Fixsen has a background in Applied Behavior Analysis, Social Work and Social Research, and Implementation Practice. For more than 15 years Amanda has worked to understand how human and health services can be effectively implemented and scaled-up in real world contexts. Amanda leads in her work with her values of community, compassion, and joy.

Amanda most recently served as Vice President of Programs and Implementation at the intermediary Invest in Kids in Denver, Colorado working to ensure the high-quality delivery of evidence-based programs in early childhood throughout Colorado. Previously, Amanda worked at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress serving mental health sites nationally through consultation on methods of effective clinical training, and of the implementation of trauma-focused evidence-based programs.
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Liz brings a personal and professional understanding of the strengths and challenges experienced by families and communities navigating complex service systems. She brings over a decade of experience in community education, outreach, and program implementation, and was instrumental in launching and sustaining evidence-based programs and strategies at CYCRI. At Evidence For All, she applies her passion for meaningful engagement, practical implementation, and community-centered work to advance the organization’s efforts, combining her personal experience and professional expertise to help ensure programs meet the needs of the communities they serve.

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