Abby has a decade of experience working in government and nonprofit public health and human services agencies applying qualitative and quantitative methods to inform and evaluate communications materials including focus groups, surveys, and key informant interviews. She excels at partnership development and engagement to amplify communications efforts. She is a skilled data communicator with nearly ten years of experience designing data visualizations to drive evidence-based decision-making. Her areas of interest and expertise include social marketing and behavior change communications; vaccination and chronic disease, injury, and violence prevention; public health systems and data modernization; and addressing social determinants of health such as food and housing security.

Abby supports a wide range of public health evaluation and communication projects at NORC. As project director for a National Science Foundation funded project, A Community-Engaged Approach to Addressing RSV Vaccine Information Integrity: An Examination of the Role of Social Media Influencers, Abby also leads a research team employing a novel approach to identify emerging narratives around the new RSV vaccine on social media, engage social media influencers to address these narratives, and assess knowledge and behavior change in their followers over time.  

Abby also leads the evaluation of the CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure Grant data modernization funding to state, county, city, and territorial public health departments across the country. Previously, Abby served as project director for a project supporting dissemination and evaluation of materials for a CDC Foundation initiative supporting media literacy skills for parents and their children. 

Before joining NORC, Abby led planning and implementation of a FEMA-funded multimedia campaign promoting COVID-19 vaccination among multicultural communities. As a social epidemiologist, she planned and conducted health assessments and evaluations on a variety of topics related to population health, chronic disease and injury prevention, maternal and child health, behavioral health, and social determinants of health. She led data visualization and communication efforts for her team of 20+ epidemiologists and social research scientists; contributed to evaluation planning, data management, and data analysis for 10+ evaluation projects; and produced reports, peer-reviewed articles, blog posts, and presentations to share policy-relevant findings. Abby also engaged strategically with policymakers, program managers, and community partners to ensure data were relevant and actionable to inform policy.