Delivering Inquiry Forward
From problem exploration to lasting action
Summary Background
Inquiry Forward is a consulting and publishing platform developed by Nick Gilla.
As of 2023, Nick has led two careers: twelve years in technology management and eight in applied social/data science. Along the way, political advocacy, both as a private person and on behalf of agencies, has been a core part of his work. He braids technology, interdisciplinary research methods, and political advocacy to develop solutions to deeply challenging and complex social and environmental policy needs.
Over this twenty-year career he has built and administered many digital systems for the collection and analysis of data. He is an expert both in the design and administration of digital information systems, and in social-science research methodology, and braids these techniques and best-practices to support successful technology-enabled research initiatives.
In data analysis, Nick utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative realm, he is fluent in deterministic (standard) and non-deterministic (complex/chaotic) statistics, including descriptive and inferential multi-variate techniques. In the qualitative realm, he has supported traditional hand coding and thematic analysis, as well as technology-enabled designs, including natural-language processing, the literature of which he follows closely. He is conversant in most softwares, but is most adept and efficient in R and its rich array of quantitative and qualitative tools.
His formal training is in computer science, mathematics, and research psychology. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Mathematics from Portland State University, and has completed graduate sequences in adjacent topics, including geographic information systems.
Nick also brings a broad range and depth of experience in social-science research, including survey techniques, having supported data collection and analysis on multiple projects, including but not limited to: a Community Psychology study at Portland State University of the impacts of racism upon Black healthcare participants’ trust in medical systems; a (Complex-Systems) Political Economy study of worker-ownership vis-a-vis commodity-pricing indices in partnership with American University; and a community-wealth building study among urban Native Americans in partnership with Brandeis University.
He currently leads data science and program evaluation for the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland. The agency administers programs in every area of human services, and Nick has led and supported dozens of evaluations of these programs. These include data collection, analysis, and reporting in housing, community and traditional health work (CHW/THW), education at every level, workforce development, and political advocacy, to name a few of dozens.
Nick is currently advocating for and supporting efforts to improve community information systems for health and housing, including advising state-level REAL-D/SOGI workgroups and supporting intercounty efforts in the Portland region to improve coordination between houselessness data systems.
Detailed Background, by Key Skill
See also Nick's LinkedIn profile and work samples.
Analysis
As the data-science and program evaluation lead for NAYA, Nick designs internal studies of dozens of programs across housing, youth, family, community development, workforce development, and political-advocacy programming. He manages data-analysis and story-telling projects using community-driven, equity-rooted frameworks, and partners closely with dozens of governmental and philanthropic stakeholders to align strategic priorities.
As a research consultant, he led research on housing and service strategies for homeless Native Americans in Portland, and developed design recommendations for a permanent supportive housing (PSH) program. He interviewed housing and service agencies in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Indiana on best practices in administration of programs, and incorporated community-provided data from the Native American community in Portland, and from Coalition of Communities of Color. The project culminated in a report for use by the leadership of a local service provider led by Native Americans, which resulted in funding for a $5 million PSH-enabled program at the agency, the proposal for which was authored by Nick.
Member of the Oregon Program Evaluators’ Network and American Evaluation Association, and maintains close relationships with leading program evaluators and researchers.
Trained in mixed-methods research, advanced statistics, decision theory, predictive analytics, computer science, and geographic information systems.
Data Collection and Management
For eight years, as a data scientist, research consultant, and research assistant, Nick has collected, cleaned, and analyzed data using complex software tools and advanced statistical methods, and has worked with marginalized populations using community-rooted methodologies.
Manages all aspects of data collection and management for program evaluation and contractual reporting across dozens of human-services programs. This includes data-quality management and training, imputation (correcting/estimating "missingness" within data), and communicating estimates clearly.
Assisted research on health equity for African Americans in North and Northeast Portland with the Department of Psychology at PSU:
Helped develop interview protocols.
Organized and analyzed survey data.
Assisted in presenting results in a published research report.
Handled extremely sensitive data concerning ethnicity and health status.
Assisted research on policy efficacy with respect to education outcomes for youth who are disproportionately impacted by poor education outcomes, with the Department of Public Policy at PSU:
Analyzed longitudinal data from three PPS high schools regarding the effects of Measure 98.
Developed statistical models to facilitate understanding of trends and to predict outcomes, including a novel metric that helped identify a key outcome that would have otherwise not been possible to see.
Has extensive experience building and administering complex databases. For instance, for three years as the Director of Enterprise Operations for Angel Publishing, Nick led a ground-up design and deployment of a novel database platform that ensured data integrity in real time. At the Native American Youth and Family Center, Nick administers the programmatic database Efforts to Outcomes for the agency, covering over 300 grants and programs.
Certified to perform research that includes sensitive personal data; extensive experience managing data-security protocols.
Problem Solving
Over a twenty-year career, Nick has managed many large, complex projects with severe budgetary constraints and multiple stakeholders.
Over eight years of serving as a researcher and research assistant on multiple projects, Nick has utilized novel, creative techniques to understand complex problems. In fact, this is precisely the reason he moved to Portland and attended PSU: in order to utilize advanced problem-solving techniques taught in the Systems Science program. For instance, for two years he assisted research on labor economics in the program, using agent-based modeling with advanced software that performed thousands of virtual experiments between millions of “agents”--members of a virtual economy, which were used to understand the feasibility of a novel solution to a particular form of labor injustice.
During four years as IT Manager with Democracy Now, an equity-focused news agency in New York, Nick designed, deployed, and managed the technical infrastructure of a new television news studio, involving multiple volunteers and funders. During three years as Director of Enterprise Operations with Angel Publishing in Baltimore, he successfully completed a ground-up build of three large infrastructure projects, including a custom constituent relationship-management system (CRM) and the enterprise’s entire telephony system. In the, Nick regularly resolved complex, mission-critical problems during the daily live television broadcast, requiring a detailed yet calm demeanor in order to collaborate effectively on seconds-long deadlines.
Communication
Authored dozens of grant proposal for millions of dollars in funding.
Wrote dozens of research and program reports for academia, government, and philanthropy.
Taught political geography, immigration, environmental sustainability, and ethics.
Has two decades of experience training colleagues and other stakeholders on complex workflows, with a focus on facilitating self-sufficiency
Has given countless presentations to academic, non-profit, and industry stakeholders, and has been interviewed on radio and given talks at conferences.
Has academic training in advanced conflict resolution, and has developed collaboration skills using tact and diplomacy in potentially contentious situations. For instance, for two years Nick successfully facilitated dialogs between Jewish and Palestinian Americans, in order to aid understand each community’s concerns with respect to safety and autonomy, resulting in a unified platform for the organization.
Certified as a Master Recycler with Oregon Metro, and has developed training materials and led public information sessions
Relationships
Maintains key relationships with community and academic researchers across the Northwest of the US, including a former President of the American Evaluation Association, researchers at George Mason, American, Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, and Portland State Universities, and leadership at the Research Justice Initiative of the Coalition of Communities of Color.
Maintains key relationships with community leaders in areas of housing, planning, education, and the environment. Regularly engages in efforts to move policy initiatives forward at both grassroots and governmental levels.
Organized with multiple efforts in Northeast Portland on food justice, ensuring that viable grocery needs were within reasonable reach, and that urban farming was expanded, while attempting to mitigate displacement caused by gentrification.
Utilized data and recommendations from a major report on displacement by Lisa Bates from PSU.
Met with neighbors and determined needs.
Assisted in organizing lobbying and information campaigns.
Managed resources and volunteers for the Urban Farm Collective for two years and served on its de facto board.
Attended community meetings organized by Living Cully and the Cully Boulevard Alliance, in order to understand their anti-displacement efforts and to provide ideas for economic evaluation.
Facilitated Jewish/Palestinian inter-communal dialogues in the Capitol region of the US, and led an organization’s effort to lobby members of Congress by distilling and unifying diverse asks and effectively organizing a diverse constituency.