Jessica Sperling, PhD

Director, Evaluation and Strategic Planning, CTSI
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina, United States

I am an evaluator and applied researcher, and I currently serve as the Director of the Duke Office of Evaluation and Applied Research Partnership; Director of the Applied Research, Evaluation, & Engagement team based in Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI); and Director, Evaluation & Strategic Planning, Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). My work utilizes qualitative and mixed methods to understand the interplay between individual experience and complex institutions and interventions. Substantively, my work is focused on education, healthcare, pilot / innovation programming, and inequality; in my current capacity, I collaborate with health system initiatives, university, and community-based initiatives. I am centrally committed to utilizing research and evaluation processes to inform strategic initiative development and to inform iterative decision-making. I have served as PI, co-Investigator, and/or key personnel on federal and foundation-provided grants in these areas. I have successfully overseen and administered research and evaluation projects (e.g. staffing, research protections, budget), collaborated with other researchers and practitioners, and produced audience-appropriate dissemination products. In addition to serving as a practitioner of qualitative and mixed methods work, applied research, and evaluation, I am committed to teaching and capacity-building in these areas. I have taught research methods and evaluation at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as in leadership and organizational development programming serving non-profit and healthcare sectors. I hold a Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where my work was funded by the NSF, Ford Foundation, and Social Science Research Council.

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Presentation(s):

• Effectively and efficiently evaluating multiple programs under one shared initiative: Lessons, ideas, and challenges from physician-scientist development programs

  Wednesday, October 11, 2023
  4:15 PM – 5:15 PM ET

• Telling the story of potential Impacts in clinical and translational science

  Thursday, October 12, 2023
  3:45 PM – 4:45 PM ET

• But what counts as “potential”?: Identifying potential benefits across use cases and developing framework for defining “potential”

  Thursday, October 12, 2023
  3:45 PM – 4:45 PM ET