About Summit Survey Research

Darren Thacker, MPA

Subject Matter Expert in Transportation Safety, Federal Grant Programs, and Community Engagement

Darren is a transportation safety and federal grant specialist with experience at both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration. His work spans roadway safety analysis, program oversight, technical assistance, and collaboration with state, local, regional, and Tribal partners.

At FHWA’s Office of Safety, Darren served as a program manager for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program, helping communities navigate planning and implementation funding designed to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. Earlier, as a regional program manager with NHTSA, he supported state and local traffic-safety programs and worked with crash and fatality data. He brings a practical understanding of federal grant requirements, public-sector partnerships, and the community engagement needed to turn safety goals into actionable projects. View Darren’s LinkedIn profile.

Rachel Levenstein, Ph.D.

Subject Matter Expert in Survey Methodology

Rachel is an applied research and evaluation leader with more than 15 years of experience supporting public-sector, nonprofit, and technology organizations. She earned a Ph.D. in Survey Methodology from the University of Michigan, where her training focused on survey methodology, mixed-mode data collection, nonresponse and measurement error, sampling, and statistical analysis.

Her expertise includes survey design, quasi-experimental research, quantitative analysis, and research operations. Rachel has led complex projects from initial concept through dissemination across education, local government, policing, and civic engagement, partnering closely with clients to produce findings that are both rigorous and actionable. She has presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research and published on survey methodology, mixed-mode data collection, response quality, and technology-assisted survey research. View Rachel’s publications on Google Scholar.

Manya Bell, Ph.D.

Subject Matter Expert in Early Childhood Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement

Manya is an independent monitoring, evaluation, and learning consultant with over six years of experience designing and leading early childhood evaluations. She works with organizations on evaluation planning, data collection and analysis, reporting, and the development of tools like surveys, dashboards, and scoring templates, helping programs use their own data to guide decisions rather than just report on outcomes.

Her recent work includes partnerships with the Institute for Child Success and Reach Out and Read, where she led evaluation design and psychometric validation work, including the CONNECT caregiver-clinician relationship survey, now used across many pediatric clinics in the Reach Out and Read network. She has also done community needs assessments and program evaluations for government and philanthropic clients through her earlier work at Applied Survey Research.

Manya specializes in mixed-methods and participatory research, survey development and validation, and continuous quality improvement, and provides training and technical assistance to help program teams build their own evaluation capacity.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Developmental Psychology and a graduate certificate in Cognitive Science from the University of Connecticut. View Manya’s LinkedIn profile.

Caroline Martin, Ph.D.

Subject Matter Expert in Early Childhood Mental Health and Program Evaluation

Caroline is an applied researcher focused on improving how young children’s mental health concerns are prevented, identified, and addressed across systems of care. She designs rigorous, practical evaluations for education, pediatric health, home visiting, and behavioral health programs, with expertise in advanced quantitative analysis, mixed methods, implementation science, and systems-level evaluation.

She also completed research fellowships at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Brown University and earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Vermont. Her work helps practitioners, policymakers, and funders understand not only whether programs achieve intended outcomes, but also the implementation conditions, organizational factors, and partnerships that shape lasting change. View Caroline’s LinkedIn profile.

Cristina Cousins, LCSW

Subject Matter Expert in Behavioral Health and Clinical Social Work

Cristina is a licensed clinical social worker with more than a decade of experience across psychotherapy, managed care, medical settings, hospice and palliative care, and health policy. In private practice, she assesses and treats concerns including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, and relationship challenges using person-centered, cognitive behavioral, mindfulness-based, and solution-focused approaches.

Her broader work includes coordinating care for dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid members in Aetna’s Special Needs Plan, collaborating with interdisciplinary clinical teams, and addressing medical, behavioral, financial, housing, and food-related barriers to care. As a Behavioral Health Services Consultant for Signature Medical Group, she provided clinical leadership and staff training for a national CMS Bundled Payment for Care Improvement pilot supporting more than 50 orthopedic groups. Cristina earned her Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis and brings a systems perspective to client-centered behavioral health care. View Cristina’s LinkedIn profile.