Kayla Meyers, M.D.P.

Senior Consultant

+1-651-447-5540

Kayla is a curious evaluator who finds joy in partnering with individuals, organizations, and communities to create pathways toward the common good. She brings expertise in participatory evaluation, engaging stakeholders, and reporting. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time at the lakes and traveling to new places.

Expertise

Evaluation

Kayla approaches evaluation as a tool for understanding and growth—she uses her practice as an opportunity to learn, interpret, and make decisions about programs and interventions. Kayla brings to the team experience in international evaluation and expertise in creating qualitative and quantitative methods that address the needs of varied settings. She is skilled at putting all her strengths to use working across multiple stakeholders to create greater use. She also has rich experience in report-writing and the presentation of findings.

Consulting

Kayla is skilled at understanding the contexts of organizations and the communities with whom they work, uncovering and explaining how the alignment of these contexts can lead to greater impact. In her relationships with clients, Kayla emphasizes the value of lifting up community voices to understand the strengths, challenges, and impacts of programs within communities.

Youth homelessness and out-of-home placement

Kayla has rich experience working with youth homelessness and out-of-home placement, including strategic planning and design of programs to meet the needs of this specific population.

Practice areas

International Community Development

Professional Experience

The Improve Group | St. Paul, MN | Senior Consultant | 2017-present | Plan, lead, and execute evaluation project activities to make the most of information, navigate complexity, and ensure clients’ investments of time and money lead to meaningful, sustained impact. Project experience includes:

The Improve Group | St. Paul, MN | Associate Consultant | 2014-2017 | Worked collaboratively with project team to execute activities.

RECLAIM! | Minneapolis, MN | Development Intern | 2013-2014 | Initiated research on social enterprise opportunities, resulting in continued efforts to develop products for additional fundraising opportunities year-round and created culturally sensitive programming that included the youth served by the program.

Global Citizen’s Network | Minneapolis, MN | Student Consultant | 2013-2014 | Constructed an Evaluation Toolkit, including complementary quantitative and qualitative instruments, that was customized for the organization’s needs and goals.

ForestAction Nepal | Kathmandu, Nepal | Student Consultant | 2013 | Designed and facilitated focus groups and interviews with stakeholders involved in forestry product markets as well as those who faced barriers in entering the market, compiled data into reports accessible for those with limited knowledge of English, and presented findings at multiple conferences across the country.

Education

University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs | Master of Development Practice

Arcadia University | Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Spanish

Want to learn more about Kayla? Check out their full resume here!