Mr Juarez is a Certified Management Consultant, having over 40 years of experience in project direction and management. He received an MA degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and keeps abreast of current trends and events in his fields of expertise. Fluent in Spanish and English, he personally oversees all corporate projects while making himself available to assist with staff support and project implementation at any stage, especially with maintaining close client contact. A long-time member of the Institute of Management Consultants Mr. Juarez is a past president of the Los Angeles chapter.

Mr. Hulse is a professional accountant with a broad range of experience in the field, including financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, income tax preparation, payroll taxes, audit support and payroll. He is knowledgeable of GAAP, financial statements and forecasting. He has worked as a Controller and as a Staff Accountant for various enterprises.

Sara Montolla is an experienced researcher who manages marketing efforts, assists in writing proposals, and works with Head Start program directors, school district administrators, principals, childcare center directors, teachers and others to support J&A projects. She works with diverse communities and participants as a bilingual recruiter, trained observer, interviewer and surveyor. She received her MS in Child Development form Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a BA in Liberal Arts: Spanish Literature and Language from Grinnell College.

Cynthia Benavides has been involved in several education and social research projects in Los Angeles and nationally in the past decade. She has extensive experience in data collection, coordinating efforts and project management. She received a BA in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University.

Dr. Resnick is a nationally recognized expert in child development research, bringing decades of experience at the nexus of child development and program evaluation. He has assessed young children’s school and reading readiness outcomes internationally, especially for children living in disadvantaged communities.

Dr. Schwartz’ research and work experienced has been focused on mechanisms to improve access to quality in basic education, mainly early childhood education policy and programs, teacher training, conditional cash transfers, and education reform in Brazil. Her work has focused on applications to improve reading in early grades, including the preparation of assessment reports and literature reviews. She has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and other institutions. A Brazilian national, she holds an undergraduate degree in Portuguese from UNICAMP, a Master’s degree in General Education from SUNY Albany, a Master’s degree and an EdD degree in Education Policy from George Washington University. Dr. Schwartz is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French.

Mr. Rubio has extensive experience in international development, having engaged in such professional activities as educational measurements (standards and testing), monitoring and evaluation, basic education, higher education partnerships, teacher development, assessment of institutional performance, planning and assessment of workforce development, distance learning, educational equity and gender, training and supervision of field research teams, EMIS database design, and social marketing. Currently he is Director of the Guatemala Lifelong Learning Project implemented by J&A in Guatemala. Mr. Rubio received his MA in Psychology from the New York School of Social Research, and a BA in Psychology from the Universidad de Panamá. He also teaches courses in Assessment, Measurement and Evaluation at Del Valle University in Guatemala.

Dr. Vijil is a social scientist, holding a doctorate in Educational Sciences from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She has extensive experience in pre-service and in-service teacher training in primary, secondary and higher education, including expertise in early grade literacy, educational materials development, school counseling and educational resource management. She has served as teacher training researcher and academic coordinator at several Central American universities and manager or program director at Central American foundations. She has worked as a consultant for the IDB, FNUAP, the Netherlands Cooperation Service, international NGOs, universities and private sector foundations. She has published academic papers, books, book chapters and articles. She speaks Spanish, French and English.

Mr. Kumar is a post graduate (MA) in the area of Anthropology, also having a post graduate diploma in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Service in Ranchi, India. Based in New Delhi, he has over 22 years working with national and international donor agencies. On behalf of J&A, he supported the monitoring and evaluation component of USAID’s India REACH project which aimed at reaching and educating vulnerable children; in addition he was part of the team performing a six-country cross-national evaluation of Room to Read libraries which provide educational opportunities for underserved children in Asia and Africa. At present, he is involved in business development in Asia and Africa.