Center Staff

Sarah B. Hunter

Director, Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles

Sarah B. Hunter (she/her) is a senior behavioral scientist, professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles (CHHLA). Over a decade ago, Sarah started working in the field of supportive housing. Since that time, she has led numerous studies documenting the impact of supportive housing on service use and associated costs, including initiatives in Los Angeles County (i.e., Housing for Health and Just in Reach Pay for Success) and beyond (e.g., in the Inland Empire and Pima County, AZ). She has also studied programs that provide rapid-re-housing and employment supports for people involved in the justice system. She recently co-led a longitudinal study of veterans experiencing homelessness in West Los Angeles to better understand service utilization and barriers to housing stability. She currently helps direct several of the Center projects, including research to better understand the needs and preferences of transitional aged youth and unsheltered adults experiencing homelessness. Hunter is active in the Homelessness Policy Research Institute, a joint effort by University of Southern California, United Way Greater LA, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Hunter received her B.A. from New York University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Jason M. Ward

Associate Director, RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles

Jason Ward is an economist at the RAND Corporation, associate director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His work uses the tools of applied microeconomics to study housing and homelessness policy, labor markets, education, health, and links between these domains. His research in the areas of housing and homelessness includes a study assessing the potential for the adaptive reuse of commercial real estate to address the housing crisis in Los Angeles, a study estimating the causal effects of restrictive labor agreements on the production of affordable housing, and an ongoing longitudinal study generating estimates of the size of populations of unsheltered Angelenos in Los Angeles and collecting evidence on the housing needs of this population. Other research has included assessing long-term trends in education gaps between military veterans and non-veterans, estimating the effect of four-day school weeks on child educational achievement, studying the nature of geographic variation in health care utilization, and quantifying the association between education and health over the life course. Current projects include a study of the adequacy of the Basic Allowance for Housing for Army servicemembers and their families, and a study highlighting policy reforms that can increase housing production and affordability in New York City.

Marylou Gilbert

Coordinator, RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles

Marylou Gilbert is a senior policy analyst with extensive background in community-based and community-partnered recruitment, engagement and field research, particularly in the greater Los Angeles area. She has experience with a variety of field methods, including structured survey methodology, semi-structured executive and other interviews, and focus groups as well as qualitative case studies and ethnographies, through a number of community-driven projects at RAND, such as implementation and intervention studies providing technical assistance to Boys & Girls Clubs, teaching and training an adolescent and young adult substance use curriculum, conducting parent workshops, conducting network analysis of homeless individuals, collaborative linkages for drug court programs, services for homeless adults with alcohol and drug problems, syringe exchange and HIV prevention programs, and classroom culture in middle schools. Previously, she has worked at UCLA, USC, NORC, Westat, and Abt Associates on several research projects related to homelessness, HIV issues, tobacco policies, substance use, maternal and child health, law, and child development. She is also a certified AIDS counselor for injection drug users, and worked for over 5 years as a clinical social worker in downtown Los Angeles. Gilbert is also bi-lingual in English and Spanish. She received her J.D. in health law, M.A. in Latin American studies and public health from UCLA, and B.S.W. in Chicano studies and social welfare from UC Berkeley.

Tiffany Hruby

Administrative Assistant, RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles

Tiffany Hruby is an administrative assistant supporting multiple researchers whose work focuses on treating substance abuse in primary care, examining the quality of care for veterans, and addressing homelessness.

Lisa Abraham

Associate Economist, RAND Corporation

Lisa Abraham is an associate economist at the RAND Corporation. Her research examines mechanisms for gaps in labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on underrepresented groups. Abraham has examined barriers to the recruitment, retention, and earnings equality of women in high-skill jobs, and has experience partnering with technology companies to acquire novel datasets and operate large-scale field experiments. Abraham completed her Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in May 2020. Prior to her Ph.D., Abraham obtained an MSc in Economics and Management from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in mathematics and economics from Wellesley College. She was previously the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department and an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Stephanie Brooks Holliday

Behavioral Scientist, RAND Corporation

Stephanie Brooks Holliday (she/her) is a behavioral scientist and clinical psychologist at the RAND Corporation. Much of her work at RAND has focused on the criminal and juvenile justice system, especially diversion, reentry, and services to prevent future justice-system involvement. She has led and contributed to the evaluation of programs to improve community reintegration in this population, including a focus on employment, behavioral health, and housing needs. Her work has also focused on military and veteran health, mental health, and well-being. Brooks Holliday completed her graduate training at Drexel University and her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center.

Maya Buenaventura

Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Maya Buenaventura is a policy researcher at RAND. She employs quantitative and qualitative methods on a variety of projects, including program evaluation and empirical legal studies. Prior to RAND, she was a senior research manager at the California Policy Lab at UCLA where she led a portfolio of homelessness prevention projects. She has served as a Los Angeles County Management Fellow for the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs where she designed and implemented programs to address complex policy issues such as high-cost loans and legalization of street vending. During her previous tenure at RAND as a Ph.D. candidate and assistant policy researcher, she performed evaluations of indigent defense systems and programs that serve children and families, justice-involved individuals, and individuals experiencing homelessness. She also worked on projects that explored legal and policy implications of autonomous vehicle technology, workforce collaboration between the United States Air Force and commercial airlines, and purchased care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to her career in public policy, she spent seven years as litigator handling defense of consumer finance and product liability matters. She represented asylum seekers, victims of trafficking, and victims of domestic abuse in immigration court on a pro bono basis. She is currently a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate. She is also a member of Homelessness Policy Research Institute (HPRI). She received her J.D. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in public policy from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Max Griswold

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND; Ph.D. Candidate, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Max Griswold is a policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D. candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research is focused on behavioral risk factors in epidemiology and policy, with a particular emphasis on alcohol use, substance use, gun violence, and high body-mass index.

Eli Kohlenberg

Research Software Engineer, RAND Corporation

Eli Kohlenberg is a Research Software Engineer in the Research Programming Group (RPG), focusing on modeling and simulations. Prior to joining RAND he worked in the automated quality assurance of shipboard and other mission critical systems. He holds a BS in Engineering Physics and Computer Science from the Tufts University School of Engineering.

Jonah Kushner

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND; Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Jonah Kushner is a Ph.D. student at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy researcher at RAND. His research interests include policies to improve health care delivery and address the social determinants of health, increase access to high-quality affordable housing, and promote workforce development and economic security in response to automation and artificial intelligence.

Samantha Matthews

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Samantha Matthews (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Community-Partnered Policy and Action stream at Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. She has an M.P.A. and a B.A. in political science and communication from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include criminal justice reform, mental health, homelessness, and housing. Prior to joining Pardee RAND, she was an analyst at the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, where she managed regional and municipal homelessness and housing programs, including prevention and diversion, workforce development for transition age youth (TAY), landlord outreach and incentives, and two "tiny home" non-congregate shelters. She also assisted in the development of a mobile crisis response program for people experiencing mental health crises. Finally, she led efforts to coordinate and ensure alignment between government agencies, elected officials, and service providers to better combat homelessness in the San Gabriel Valley in eastern Los Angeles County.

Ryan K. McBain

Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Ryan K. McBain is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. He focuses on the design and evaluation of health policies and programs meant to reach vulnerable populations—including those coping with mental health conditions, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, and poverty. To achieve this, McBain has utilized a wide range of methodologies, including econometric approaches for quasi-experimental analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and decision analytic models, as well as key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Internationally, McBain has worked with the World Bank, World Health Organization, Harvard University and Partners In Health, where he has focused on evaluating mental health, HIV, and primary care service delivery systems, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti.

Kelsey O’Hollaren

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND; Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School

O'Hollaren is a second-year student at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research interests include drug policy (particularly, drug markets and their peculiarities), housing policy in urban areas, and wealth building initiatives for low-income and minority populations. He is a graduate of Seattle University, where he earned a Bachelor of the Arts in economics.

Alina I. Palimaru

Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Alina I. Palimaru is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her journey to date has spanned government, commerce, and the media, but primarily academia, where she has garnered extensive mixed methods research experience under world-class tutelage. At UCLA, she expanded her interest and capabilities in mixed methods, including psychometrics, in-depth interview, focus group, and video-based methods. Her research focuses on the junction of poverty and health, including health outcomes measurement, quality of life, disability, housing, and food insecurity. She has been studying the impact of quality of care on quality of life in the context of disabling pathologies (spinal cord injury), but also mental health and aging populations.

Daniel Schwam

Quantitative Analyst, RAND Corporation

Daniel Schwam is a quantitative analyst at the RAND Corporation in the Washington, D.C. office. He holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree from New York University. Daniel works across a broad array of subjects at RAND, a majority of which rely heavily on analyzing microdata from a variety of public and private sources.

Alex Sizemore

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Alex Sizemore (she/they) is a Ph.D. student in the Community-Partnered Policy and Action stream at Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. She has an M.A. in urban planning from the University of Southern California, an M.A. in curatorial studies from the University of Southern California, and a B.A. in art history from the University of California, Berkeley. Sizemore is passionate about using community engaged research to address poverty and structural racism. Her research interests include homelessness and housing, criminal justice reform, social welfare programs, education, and workforce development.

Joan S. Tucker

Senior Behavioral Scientist, RAND Corporation

Joan S. Tucker is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. She conducts research primarily in the areas of substance use and HIV/AIDS. Tucker's work on substance use includes identifying developmental trajectories of substance use, risk factors for initiation and escalation, and short- and long-term consequences of use during adolescence and young adulthood. Her HIV-related research includes investigating the impact of mental health and substance use problems on adherence to antiretroviral medications; prevalence and correlates of risky sexual practices among HIV-positive adults with serious mental illness; and the interrelationships of substance use, violence, and HIV-related risk behavior among homeless adults and youth. Much of Tucker's recent research has focused on developing and evaluating brief interventions for substance use and sexual risk behaviors.

George Zuo

Associate Economist, RAND Corporation

George Zuo (pronounced "zō") is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on improving economic mobility for low-income Americans. His research has explored topics including broadband affordability, school discipline, housing, and revitalizing low-income neighborhoods. Zuo received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland in 2021, where he studied on a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Prior to his graduate studies, Zuo worked as a senior associate in economic consulting at Deloitte and received his B.A. in economics from Harvard University in 2013.