George G. Gabel
EXECUTIVE PROFILE
Highly accomplished leader with expertise in technical assistance, program design, project management, and evaluation. Over 30 years of experience in child welfare technical assistance and research. Proven history in technical assistance to jurisdictions with senior positions in national technical assistance centers. In-depth knowledge of human services policy and administration at federal, state, and local levels. Drives development and implementation with diplomacy and tact.
Passion for changing research for better partnering and co-design with lived experience experts. Child welfare research must fulfill its role in the call to action for social justice. Using brief assessment processes and knowledge transfer of new experiences in the field, supports change in co-design and builds internal and community plans to imbed this transformation.
Strategy, execution, and evaluation: Designs and implements continuous quality improvements, research, and evaluation. Quickly absorbs new technical information and with breadth and depth of evaluation expertise, use and implementation of evidence, and array of scientific and technical tools. Sets ambitious and achievable goals, executes strategies and evaluations that drive results.
Collaborative spirit to support agencies to solve their wickedest problem. Human service agencies, public and private, have large social responsibilities and limited budgets. Collaborate approach to balance burden, expectations, and execution in the careful implementation of new interventions and data usage. Respect for local wisdom and applicable tools from current implementation sciences.
Executive leadership: Mentors and advises senior staff. Navigates political landscapes across organizations and agencies and establishes cultures of respect and integrity. Accomplished thought leader, recognized for translating statistics into compelling and cogent arguments for change.
Building of agency technical capacity: Comfortable and respectful mentoring style, informed by 10 years in federal resource centers. Creating management tools and coaching and training staff in state, county, Tribal, and community agencies to design, build, analyze, present, and translate information into actionable data for agency management.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
G CUBED IMPACT CONSULTING, Silver Spring, MD | 2021 - present
Strategic consultation to child welfare agencies, not-for profits, and stakeholder organizations. Emphasis on using data to improve decision-making to improve the well-being of children and families. Committed to partnering with lived experience experts.
Small business launched in Fall 2021. Strategic coaching and mentorship to child welfare leaders, defining and measuring impact of agency objectives. Partner with lived experience experts to disseminate best practices and lessons learned from research and evaluation about co-design of data systems, research, and evaluation.
WESTAT, Rockville, MD | 1996 - 2021
Professional service corporation of social science research and statistical analysis. Renowned for the highest levels of quality and integrity.
Twenty-five years of driving successful teams to design, collect, analysis and apply critical research and evaluation that impacts state, Tribal, and federal child welfare and education funding improving the lives of family and children. Led significant evaluation, research, and technical assistance projects with budgets up to $13M and up to 41 multi-disciplinary staff members.
Project Highlights
Evaluation of the Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII), 2011 - 2019
Client: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. DHHS
Role: As Project Director tasked with evaluation of reducing long-term foster care and improving outcomes for children who experience serious barriers to permanency. Built an alliance of purveyors, academics, employees, and sub-contractors through 5-year implementation. Designed documents replicated and useful for other jurisdictions beyond scope of original project. Results will enable jurisdictions to build evidence base, better allocate resources, significantly reducing time to place children with permanent families.
Capacity Building Center for Tribes, 2014-2021
Client: Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. DHHS
Role: Senior Adviser
Capacity Building Center for Courts, 2019-2021
Client: Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. DHHS
Role: Senior Adviser
National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology (NRCCWDT), 2009-2014
Client: Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. DHHS
Role: As Westat Lead, created peer-to-peer learning groups, provided technical assistance, and demonstrated how utility of data and innovative technologies can improve service delivery to children and families.
Analytic Information Systems and Research, 2003-2008 and 2016-2021
Client: New York City Administration for Children’s Services (NYCACS)
Role: As Principal Investigator on multiple tasks, identified and measured characteristics of youth requiring congregate care and best programs servicing youth. Conducted surveys of youth at over 40 provider agencies in manner that limited burden on staff and protected confidentiality of youths’ identity.
Colorado Consortium for Differential Response, 2010-2013
Client: Colorado State University
Role: As Deputy Evaluation Director, innovated approach to random control trial with diplomacy and discretion while fostering trust.
Assessment and Evaluation of the Wisconsin Subsidized Guardianship Initiative, 2005-2010
Client: Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services
Role: As Projector Director, demonstrated that subsidized guardianship was safe for children and cost neutral for state. Combined with our study results in Illinois and Tennessee, paved the way toward new federal legislation for subsidized guardianship, Fostering Connections Act.
ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES, New York, NY | 1990 - 1996
Municipal agency that operates head start, protective services, foster care, and child support programs.
As the Director of Management Analysis, managed long-range planning, management planning, statistical analysis, interpretation of data and research. Developed forecasting models and managed care initiatives for trend reporting. Lead on Home Rebuilders Initiative, the States’ pilot to implement performance-based contracting to improve outcomes for children in foster care.
NEW YORK SERVICE FOR THE HANDICAPPED, New York, NY | 1977 - 1990
Held various roles including Project Director and Camp Director, developed, and administered programs for physically disabled children and adults including an arts, Big Brother/Big Sister, and respite care programs.
NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION, New York, NY | 1974 - 1977
Special education teacher accountable for developing, implementing, and monitoring IEPs for children with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities.
SELECTED PARTICIPATION, PUBLICATIONS, & PRESENTATIONS
Gabel, G. Member; Evaluation Advisory Committee; DC Foster Youth Initiative, January 2021 - present.
Gabel, G. Member; Montgomery County Maryland Child Welfare Advisory Panel, 2016 - 2020.
Gabel, G. Phipps, T., Long, T.; Early and Enough? Partnering with Consumers in Evaluation. Kempe Call to Action Virtual Conference, 2020.
Gabel. G., Evaluation and CQI Are Good Bedfellows: It’s Just Finding the Right Sleep Number. Child Welfare League of America Annual Conference, 2019.
Jaasko-Fisher, T., Gabel, G. Is Collaboration Worth the Cost? An Interactive Experience in Co-creating a Way to Measure Return on Investment in Collaborations. Child Welfare Evaluation, 2019.
Heaton, L., Gabel, G. Adapting Interventions for Child Welfare Populations: Important Considerations. 21st National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Winokur, M., Gabel, G. A Critical Appraisal of Issues in Differential Response: Moving the Field Forward. Research on Social Work Practice, v23 n5 p531-534.
Gabel, G., Kulbicki, K. Child Welfare and New Technology. Plenary presented at the federal Children’s Justice Act National Meeting of federal and state representatives, New Orleans, LA.
Cohen, L., Sorenson, D., Revels Robinson, D., Hill, R., Gabel, G. Latest findings from assisted guardianship waiver: Tennessee and Wisconsin. Presented at the 12th Annual Title IV-E Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Projects Meeting, Washington, DC.
Gabel, G. Evaluation of the Center for Economic Opportunity’s initiative to reduce poverty in New York City. Presented to the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics, Nashville, TN.
Gabel, G. Evaluation overview from the Assessment and Evaluation of the Wisconsin Subsidized Guardianship Initiative. Presented at the 10th Annual Child Welfare IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project Meeting, Washington, DC.
Gabel, G., Hill, R. Diagnoses, and behavioral problems of youth in congregate foster care in New York City: Summary of survey findings. Presented to the Administration for Children’s Services, New York, NY.
EDUCATION
M.S., Management Science, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
M.A., Special Education, Teacher’s College Columbia University, New York, NY
B.A., Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY