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About Us
 

OUR STORY

The Program Evaluation & Research Collaborative, or PERC, was founded in 1995 by faculty in the College of Education at the California State University Los Angeles, out of a desire to collaborate in research and evaluation projects in education and related service areas. By 2019, PERC had grown from a small collaborative of faculty to an external, full-service evaluation and applied research firm. Dr. Cheryl Ney, then Dean of the College of Education, brought Dr. Dawn Digrius Smith onboard in after the retirement of the Director, to serve as Senior Evaluation Consultant and oversee management of PERC. 

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By June of 2021, Dr. Ney felt that PERC should move to a fully external entity and in July of 2021 DMDS Partners, Inc. was incorporated and a transitional program for current clients was designed and executed. In September 2021, DMDS Partners, Inc. transitioned all existing clients from the Program Evaluation and Research Collaborative (PERC) to its operations in Altadena, California. 

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Since then, DMDS Partners, Inc. has grown from a small collaborative to a corporation serving the needs of both the Education and Non-Profit sectors.  

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OUR MISSION AND VISION

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Our commitment is to see lives transformed through education and/or career path exploration and development, especially for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. We see ourselves as facilitators of change- positive changemakers for the future. Our focus centers on all aspects of Workforce Development; from grant writing and servicing, assessment of impacts and outcomes, to partnership development between organizations and institutions and the Business/Corporate sector. We use data to inform clients on current and future labor demands and the talent needed to fill those demands. We connect education providers to employment providers and vice versa

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OUR WORK

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The DMDS Partners, Inc. team holds over two decades' of experience in evaluation and applied research activities for the K-12, higher education, and non-profit sectors. We are committed to facilitating institutional knowledge, best practices, and data-driven decision making through our evaluation and applied research services and our grants services. 

 

Many of our clients have partnered with us to help with researching funding opportunities, writing grant proposals, servings as the external evaluator of record, and managing grants. DMDS Partners, Inc. also provides assistance with Landscape Analyses, Needs Assessments/Gap Analyses, and Program/Project Evaluation. We help clients make meaningful decisions based on data, we provide data visualization and data analytics services to make information more accessible. 

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Meet the Team

Our Team draws from expertise in higher education, the K-12 sector, and in the non-profit sector. 

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