Is there a sociologist in the house?  "Yes, there is", said Greg Matthews, a University of Washington graduate (MA Sociology) with a Bachelors from Rhodes College (BA Anthropology/Sociology).

Sociology is a common major among college students with a lot of career choices.   As for Greg, he has been employed by Altarum Institute since September 2015.  Altarum is a nonprofit health systems research and consulting organization that integrates independent research and client-centered consulting to create comprehensive, systems-based solutions that improve health for all people.  Greg manages research and evaluation projects within the Business Advisory Services group.  Although he is the "new kid on the block" at the company, he leads and contributes technical expertise to a number of evaluation projects.

As a leader of his group’s Program Evaluation Community of Practice, he is always looking to increase evaluation capacity and his team's portfolio of evaluation projects.  Currently, he is a part of an independent team evaluating the effectiveness of mental health and suicide prevention services for Veterans Affairs.  He recently completed an evaluation of a Maternal and Child Health Bureau program that increased access to comprehensive dental services in underserved schools. 

Mr. Matthews is very serious about his work.  During grad school, he lived in rural South Africa for four months running a large household survey. As he drove to the field office one day he observed three escaped lions walking down the dirt road ahead of him.  It was frightening and thrilling, but he wasn't going to let Simba and friends keep him from his duties!  

A member of the Washington Evaluators for approximately ten months, Greg joined WE because he wanted to meet local evaluators and learn from the deep evaluation experience in this city.  One of WE's strong points is that we possess a plethora of knowledge covering all areas of education and a spectrum of occupations.  However, Matthews is especially interested in meeting WE members who are experienced in Health Evaluation and/or Military and Veterans Evaluation.  If you are that person, please connect with him at Gregory.Matthews@altarum.org or follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Here is the link to the poster presentation at APHA (American Public Health Association) that is a product of the MCHB oral health project, https://apha.confex.com/apha/144am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/352334.