About Us

Leadership Team

Robert Harrington – Managing Senior Associate

Robert Harrington leads projects in evaluation, research, information-systems development, and strategic planning for education, workforce development, and community development. A highly skilled developer of analytical databases, Mr. Harrington also oversees information-system support provided to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family-to-Family Initiative and leads evaluation work for Living Cities: the National Community Development Initiative. Mr. Harrington earned a master’s of business administration degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Frances L. Schorr – Managing Senior Associate

Frances Schorr has more than 20 years of experience as a researcher, evaluator, and consultant in the fields of education, comprehensive community development, and child welfare. Her interests include program development, self-evaluation, and capacity building to help communities collect, interpret, and use data to improve outcomes for children and families. Since joining Metis in 1987, she has directed projects in the areas of family literacy, adult education, comprehensive community improvement, and foster care, concentrating most recently on youth transitioning from care. She holds a doctoral degree in educational psychology from Cornell University.

Donna Tapper – Managing Senior Associate

Donna Tapper has extensive experience in the formative and summative evaluation of human services and educational programs, and has worked as an applied researcher in the public and nonprofit sectors. Her interests include case studies, survey research, and policy evaluation. Since joining Metis in 1997, Donna’s work has included evaluations of collaborative, youth-development, and school-to-career programs. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Wisconsin and has done graduate work in political science.

Donna Wilkens – Managing Senior Associate

Adding value to Metis’s projects since 1987, Donna Wilkens has more than twenty years of experience in research, evaluation, policy analysis, program planning, and development. Specializing in the field of education, her work has concentrated on early childhood education, family literacy, charter schools, magnet schools, class-size-reduction initiatives, and teacher professional development. Since relocating in 1999 to oversee Metis’s Atlanta office, Ms. Wilkens has broadened her work in human services to include the study of comprehensive community initiatives, providing evaluation technical assistance to 10 urban collaboratives as part of Metis’s work for the Georgia Family Connection Partnership.