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Team

Alissa Marchant, MSW

Director

Alissa serves as the facilitative leader of Innovation Network. Her approach is relational, creating space to leverage the strengths and knowledge of our team and clients so we can all be leaders of change. To Alissa, learning and evaluation are tools for change. She uses her background in social work and storytelling to center the whole person in learning projects. She is passionate about building equitable evaluation plans that can shift power to those closest to the issue. She is an inspiring facilitator who can guide groups in translating learning into action.

With over 10 years of experience in the social sector, Alissa has led learning and evaluation projects on a range of issue areas in the advocacy space, including early childhood, health equity, electric mobility, and social justice. She has partnered with a variety of foundations and nonprofits such as Alliance for Early Success, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kansas Health Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation.

Alissa previously served as Interim Co-Director of Innovation Network with Virginia Roncaglione. Together, they dismantled hierarchical structures at Innovation Network to shift power to team members and find new ways to build equity into our organizational processes. This transformation towards equity continues with Alissa as Director and is informed by the advocates we are learning with and from in our evaluation projects.

Prior to joining Innovation Network, Alissa conducted survey and participatory research with several child welfare organizations, including a needs assessment of mother-child attachment in the visitation process of the largest women’s prison in Chile. Her evaluation work is grounded in data visualization and storytelling techniques developed from six years of experience in Communications at John Snow, Inc and World Education. Alissa also served communities across the United States as a member of AmeriCorps NCCC.

Alissa is influenced by her Master’s in Social Work from Boston College. Away from her (home) office in Washington, DC, Alissa volunteers for children in her community as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), and enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and exploring new hiking trails.

Featured Work
  • A participatory evaluation of how the Child Care NEXT Initiative builds collective power in six state coalitions across traditional policy organizations and grassroots organizations. The first year of the evaluation contributed to a Framework for Building Collective Power and seven Milestones for Collective Power.
  • A multi-site evaluation of state campaigns to close youth prisons. The evaluation, funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, resulted in the description of Youth First’s capacity building model and case studies of two state campaigns.
  • A learning partnership with the Toward Equitable Electric Mobility (TEEM) community of practice that included short-cycle learning and reflection. The partnership identified seven lessons for centering equity and grassroots organizations.