Dynamic Partnerships: Maximizing Client-Evaluator Relationships

PANELISTS

Anna Ah Sam, Coordinator of Grantwriting, Evaluation and Assessment, Office of Student Equity, Excellence, and Diversity, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

On faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM), Dr. Ah Sam coordinates research, evaluation, and assessment activities for student service programs that implement the University’s strategic goals of access and diversity. She has presented and published widely in the areas of diversity and evaluation and has over 15 years of experience as an evaluator and researcher. In addition to her faculty responsibilities, Dr. Ah Sam serves as an evaluation consultant to a number of Native Hawaiian non-profit organizations in Hawaiʻi and academic departments at UHM. Currently, she is the external evaluator on an NSF-funded grant to develop a model program for technicians in the diversified agriculture industry.

Prior to her faculty appointment at UHM, Dr. Ah Sam coordinated and evaluated health and educational research and training projects in Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Pacific jurisdictions, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. Dr. Ah Sam holds a B.S. in Child Development from Iowa State University, a Master’s in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology from Tulane University, and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi.

Jim Dannemiller, President, SMS Research

Mr. Dannemiller is a veteran with more than 40 years of professional research experience. His technical expertise covers research design, questionnaire design, sampling, data collection, statistical analysis, and all areas of project design. Mr. Dannemiller has been principal investigator for many types of research. His expertise ranges from marketing and consumer research, through media measurement and advertising impact, to market segmentation and customer satisfaction. His public opinion research experience ranges from political polling, through issues research, to program evaluation. He has conducted research in a broad and diverse range of fields including health, education, human services, transportation, media, banking, retailing, consumer behavior, customer satisfaction, and many others.

Prior to joining SMS Research, Mr. Dannemiller spent nine years as the Director of the Survey Research Office at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In that capacity, he directed all of the survey and institutional research for the University's nine campuses and provided consultation to faculty and staff on research design and analysis.

Janis Reischmann, Executive Director, Hauʻoli Mau Loa Foundation

Ms. Reischmann is the executive director of Hauʻoli Mau Loa Foundation, an independent grantmaking foundation with offices in Honolulu and an annual grants budget of approximately $6 million. She oversees all aspects of the development of the Foundation’s grantmaking and operations, working closely with its two-person board of directors. The Foundation focuses on children and environmental issues and makes grants in Hawaiʻi and internationally.

Ms. Reischmann has more than twenty-five years of work in the nonprofit sector. She has worked as a youth counselor in a court diversionary agency, line staff in a mental health residential treatment program, a trust officer working with charitable trusts and foundations, the vice president for Hawaiʻi’s statewide community foundation, and leader in a consulting firm specializing in organizational and project development. She served on planning committees for three national philanthropic conferences hosted by the Council on Foundations and lectured at the University of Hawaiʻi Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work in community development. She has Masters' degrees in Social Work and Business Administration, both from the University of Hawaiʻi.