Yana Kusayeva leads the Evaluation and Impact Department at JVS, providing leadership and day-to-day management in the organization’s evolution toward a more data-driven culture. Yana is passionate about centering diversity, equity, and inclusion in evaluation and impact work and is helping JVS use an equity lens in making data-informed decisions and upholding high standards for performance and outcomes.

Yana comes to JVS after more than 8 years at MDRC, a national social policy research organization, where she worked on a variety of program evaluations as a researcher, manager, or technical assistance provider. During her tenure there, she was also a manager in the Office of Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion. Yana holds an MPA in public and nonprofit policy and management from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School for Public Service, an advanced certificate in Globalization and International Affairs from Bard College, and a B.A. in International Studies from Adelphi University’s Honors College. She is fluent in Russian and proficient in Spanish.