Jennifer Battis, M.Res

Jennifer Battis, M.Res.

Research Assistant

Jennifer Battis joined Hornby Zeller Associates in 2010 as Research Assistant with a focus on data collection and analysis. For one of Maine’s drug court evaluations she developed an SPSS database to track survey responses. For another she has gathered information at face-to-face interviews and focus groups of both staff and client participants. For Maine’s statewide substance abuse prevention projects, SPF-SIG she has conducted site visits of Coalition partners. For HZA’s evaluation of the Nebraska Family Helpline Ms. Battis has listened to Helpline calls and completed a structured protocol to evaluate the quality of the counselor’s responses. In addition, Ms. Battis provides data management support for Moving Forward; this program is designed to address the needs of transition-aged youth and young adults with emotional disturbances, placing emphasis on youth-directed planning and the development of practical skills leading to independence.

Prior to joining HZA, Ms. Battis worked for AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service To America), a federal public service program. Her position, with the HealthReach Community Health Centers in Waterville, Maine, involved a variety of tasks, including data analysis, research, public health information tracking and reporting. She developed tutorials and other materials for use in health centers and public health websites, and trained health care staff on proper use and tracking of the Prescription Assistance Program. In addition she was also involved in the grant-writing process, and served as HRCHC’s point person for their annual United Way campaign. Ms. Battis is also well versed in information security procedures, having worked in an administrative support role involving security clearances for the Lockheed Martin Corporation at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a competitive, international graduate program focusing on social research methodologies and statistical software tools (including SPSS, DataNet and NextGen). She received a B.A. from Elon University in North Carolina.

CFSR/PIP/QSR Support

From Pennsylvania Data Gathering, Analysis, and Reporting; Technical Assistance and Training Proposal – October 2012

Jennifer Battis, M.Res.

Analyst

Most of Jennifer Battis’ work with HZA involves data analysis using SPSS. For one of Maine’s drug court evaluations she developed an SPSS database to track survey responses. For another she has gathered information at face-to-face interviews and focus groups of both staff and client participants. In addition, Ms. Battis provides data management support for Moving Forward, a program designed to address the needs of transition-aged youth and young adults with emotional disturbances, placing emphasis on youth-directed planning and the development of practical skills leading to independence.

Prior to joining HZA, Ms. Battis worked for AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service To America), a federal public service program. She was assigned to the HealthReach Community Health Centers (HRCHC) in Waterville, Maine, conducting data analysis, research, public health information tracking and reporting. She developed tutorials and other materials for use in health centers and public health websites, and trained health care staff on proper use and tracking of the Prescription Assistance Program. In addition she was also involved in the grant-writing process, and served as HRCHC’s point person for their annual United Way campaign. Ms. Battis is well versed in information security procedures, having worked in an administrative support role involving security clearances for the Lockheed Martin Corporation at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a competitive, international graduate program focusing on social research methodologies and statistical software tools, including SPSS in which she has three years experience, DataNet and NextGen. She received a B.A. from Elon University in North Carolina.

From PA OCYF Data Analysis Re-Bid – May 2012

Jennifer Battis, M.Res.

Research Assistant

Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a competitive, international graduate program focusing on social research methodologies and statistical software tools, including SPSS in which she has three years experience, DataNet and NextGen. She received a B.A. from Elon University in North Carolina.
Court Involvement

From Connecticut Public Research Project Proposal – October 2014

Jennifer Battis, M. Res., Research Analyst

Ms. Battis will serve as the lead research analyst, assisting Mr. Rubin with the start-up activities, sample selection, follow-up calls where needed, data analysis of survey responses and report writing. Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a competitive, international graduate program focusing on social research methodologies and statistical software tools (including SPSS, DataNet and NextGen). Prior to joining HZA, Ms. Battis worked for AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service To America), a federal public service program. Her position, with the HealthReach Community Health Centers in Waterville, Maine, involved a variety of tasks, including data analysis, research, and public health information tracking and reporting.

She currently serves as the lead evaluator for many of Maine’s court-involved evaluations. As the project director for the Statewide Adult Drug Court evaluation, Ms. Battis led the conduct of structured court observations, key stakeholder interviews and drug court participant focus groups. She analyzed case management and court data to measure outcomes and to help develop specific questions to ask in the cross-site evaluation component of Maine’s six adult drug treatment court programs. Ms. Battis also served as the project director for the Bangor Family Drug Treatment Court evaluation. She updated a literature review of federal drug courts, conducted structured court observations and constructed a database for standardized assessments of the participants. Ms. Battis was also responsible for the qualitative and quantitative analyses as well as report writing. She developed an SPSS database to track survey responses for the evaluation of the Cumberland County drug court, and performed similar work for the Kennebec County Co- occurring Disorders Court evaluation and the Anchorage Family Court evaluation.

Ms. Battis has also been a part of the team assembled for the statewide assessment of disproportionate minority contact of juveniles in Louisiana’s juvenile justice system. She conducts site visits to parishes, interviewing District Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys, Clerks of Court and local law enforcement, while gathering both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the extent to which disproportionality exists and hypothesize the potential reasons for its existence.

From Florida Adult Drug Court Statewide Evaluation Proposal – July 2010

Jennifer Battis, M.Res., Research Assistant: Prior to joining HZA earlier this year, Ms. Battis earned a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. This competitive, international graduate program gave her a solid grounding in a variety of social research methodologies and statistical software tools (including SPSS, DataNet and NextGen). She also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the HealthReach Community Health Centers in Maine. Ms. Battis has served as a researcher on five special purpose court evaluations, some of which are ongoing. For the Statewide Adult Drug Court evaluation in Maine she conducted structured court observations; she also assisted with key stakeholder interviews and drug court participant focus groups and was involved in extracting data from MIS files and preparing them for analysis. She analyzed data to help determine specific questions to ask in the cross-site evaluation component of the Maine’s six adult drug treatment court programs. For the Bangor Family Drug Treatment Court, she updated the literature review on federal drug courts; she also conducted structured court observations (completing an HZA observation sheet on participant roles and timeframes), constructed a database for standardized assessments, and performed data cleaning and QC functions for this project. Ms. Battis is developing an SPSS database to track survey responses for the evaluation of the Cumberland County (Maine) drug court; she has performed similar work for the Kennebec County (Maine) Co-occurring Disorders Court evaluation and the Anchorage Family Court evaluation.

Grant Writing

From Healthy Maine Partnerships: Request for Information and Request for Proposals Development Proposal – October 2014

Research Associate: Jen Battis, M.Res.:Ms. Battis has experience using NVivo and implemented it with the Maine Families Home Visiting evaluation where she conducted focus groups and key informant interviews with local community agency staff and agency executive directors. She currently serves as the lead evaluator for many of Maine’s court-involved evaluations, leading structured court observations, key stakeholder interviews and drug court participant focus groups. Ms. Battis has experience conducting literature reviews, doing qualitative and quantitative analysis, and report writing. Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Juvenile Justice

From Connecticut DMC Evaluation Proposal – January 2015

Jennifer Battis, M.Res., has led the research on several special purpose court evaluations. For the Statewide Adult Drug Court evaluation in Maine she conducted structured court observations and participated in key stakeholder interviews and drug court participant focus groups. Ms. Battis worked with Maine to obtain data extracts from management information systems, prepared the data for analysis of the cross-site evaluation of six adult drug treatment court programs and conducted the quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Ms. Battis has also been a part of the field team assembled for the statewide assessment of DMC in Louisiana’s juvenile justice system. She conducted site visits to several parishes, interviewing local stakeholders while gathering both quantitative and qualitative data. Ms. Battis led a series of follow-up site meetings to present the results of the RRI calculations and identify potential contributing mechanisms. She has also demonstrated use of the automated JJTrac Tool HZA developed for the parishes to use to test their hypotheses and monitor the impact of intervention efforts on an ongoing basis.

From Virginia Cross Systems Assessment Proposal – May 2014

Jennifer Battis, M. Res.

Ms. Battis will serve as the fourth member of the assessment team identifying the populations in each of the three groups: juvenile justice only, child welfare only and dually-involved. She will also quantitatively analyze state and local case management data to measure recidivism and reentry rates for the three populations. In addition, she will assess the extent to which child welfare and juvenile justice youth are known to the behavioral health community. (IV.B.2.b, third bullet)

For the Bangor Family Drug Treatment Court, she updated the literature review on federal drug courts, conducted structured court observations, constructed a database for standardized assessments and performed data cleaning and quality control functions. Ms. Battis created a comparison group based on risk level and quantitatively analyzed Maine Child Welfare Information System (MACWIS) and assessment data to measure in impact of the court on family reunification. Ms. Battis developed an SPSS database to track survey responses for the evaluation of the Cumberland County drug court in Maine; she has performed similar work for the Kennebec County (Maine) Co-occurring Disorders Court evaluation and the evaluation of the Anchorage (Alaska) Family Court. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Battis holds a Master’s degree in Social Research (with Commendation) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. This highly competitive, international graduate program gave her a solid grounding in a variety of social research methodologies and statistical software tools (including SPSS, DataNet and NextGen), and allowed her to develop a unique skillset that has proven valuable to her work with HZA. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet)

From Virginia DMC Assessment Proposal – April 2014

Jennifer Battis, M. Res.

Ms. Battis will serve as the third member of the assessment team. She too will conduct site visits to the select localities to help discern reasons for DMC, identify potential data sources to test those hypotheses and conduct interviews with key stakeholders to obtain additional or supporting evidence of why disproportionality exists at various contact points. Ms. Battis will also participate in the quantitative analysis of state and local data sources, as well as with the qualitative analysis. (B.2.b bullet one, B.2.b. bullet three and B.2.b. bullet four)

Since joining HZA in 2010, Ms. Battis has served as a researcher on five special purpose court evaluations, some of which are ongoing. Working from the firm’s Portland, Maine office, she now leads the court-involved work. For the Statewide Adult Drug Court evaluation in Maine she conducted structured court observations and participated in key stakeholder interviews and drug court participant focus groups. Ms. Battis works with the State to obtain data extracts from management information system files, prepare them for analysis for the cross-site evaluation of Maine’s six adult drug treatment court programs and carry out that quantitative analysis. For the Bangor Family Drug Treatment Court, she updated the literature review on federal drug courts, conducted structured court observations, constructed a database for standardized assessments and performed data cleaning and quality control functions. More recently, Ms. Battis developed a SPSS database to track survey responses for the evaluation of the Cumberland County drug court in Maine; she has performed similar work for the Kennebec County (Maine) Co-occurring Disorders Court evaluation and the evaluation of the Anchorage (Alaska) Family Court. (B.2.b bullet one)

She has also been a part of the team assembled for the statewide assessment of disproportionate minority contact of juveniles in Louisiana’s juvenile justice system. Similar to the work performed by Ms. Arthur, Ms. Battis conducted site visits to a number of parishes, interviewing District Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys, Clerks of Court and local law enforcement, while gathering both quantitative and qualitative data to complete the assessment of DMC. Efforts are currently underway in Louisiana to contract with HZA for a fourth round of assessments; here again, along with the other project members for this engagement, Ms. Battis will be an active participate in the onsite and analytic work. (B.2.b bullet one, B.2.b. bullet four and B.2.b. bullet five)