About

At the Dawn Chorus Group, we want to see positive change and progress in the communities in which we live. As part of that mission, we only want to do cool things with cool people. By that, we mean that we want to push the boundaries of what is possible, and do this by cultivating meaningful relationships with dedicated and inspiring people.

The Dawn Chorus Group was founded in 2019, though its roots go back 15 years to partnerships developed at the University of South Carolina around shared values of social justice, participatory research, and social innovation. Currently, we are a team of psychologists, sociologists, technologists, geographers, and more who are passionate about helping people improve their work.

Core Dawn Chorus staff

Meghan Blevins, MA Research Associate

Meghan Blevins, MA

Meghan has over 15 years experience in healthy youth development, and community enhancement, including juvenile justice, prevention science, coalition building and maintenance, needs assessments, and data-driven decision-making for improved community outcomes. She started her journey of community enhancement as a Juvenile Justice programming supervisor at the Olivet Boys & Girls Club and with Berks County Juvenile Probation in Reading, PA, as a programmatic (and fun!) alternative for adjudicated youth who may otherwise be heading to placement. Seeing the changes in youth during the duration of programs, but wondering if there was data to validate the youth improvements led her to work as a Systems Change Specialist at Penn State University’s Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center’s EPISCenter. In this role, she helps guide communities through the Communities That Care (CTC) process as a certified CTC coach, and support local and state prevention collaboration.

She has had the honor of presenting a numerous Pennsylvania- based conferences, as well as the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development conference, CADCA’s 28th National Leadership Forum, developed and presented “Organizational Elements for Effective Coalitions” Enhanced Prevention Learning Series through the Prevention Enhancement Technology Center (PTTC) funded through Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Meghan serves/served on the board for the PA Youth Survey, PA Coalition on Domestic Violence, Reading Beautification, Inc., and The Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health, as well as a guest lecturer and field instructor for multiple colleges and universities.

Looking to further improve community health, Meghan earned her Master of Arts degree in Community Psychology and Social Change from Penn State University and likes to dance, all activities on the water, and time at the beach.

Mel Cronin Project Manager

Mel Cronin

Mel Cronin has extensive experience working with nonprofits and has served in a variety of roles specializing in project and program management. Mel brings her experience to the Dawn Chorus Group as the Project Manager. In this role, Mel will help facilitate the successes of the partnerships with the amazing organizations DCG is working with.

Mel received her BA in Sociology and Graduate Certificate in International NGO Management from James Madison University. She received the 40 Under 40 Award recognizing her work building a new Home Delivery program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting many community members’ ability to access food.

In her free time, Mel enjoys watching birds, sitting around campfires, puzzling, and exploring new places.

Allison Herb Research Assistant

Allison Herb

Jon Scaccia, PhD Principal

Jon Scaccia, PhD

Jon Scaccia comes from the world of applied research. Science has brought society uncountable benefits. Yet, too often, scientific findings do not make it into practice. He saw this in many settings over the last 20 years: substance abuse clinics, schools, even within the US federal government. As an implementation scientist, he recognized that barriers to understanding the primary scientific literature are not improving. His work and research is dedicated to this central mission: making sure that we utilize scientific findings and data at all levels, from peer reviewed articles to community-based indigineous knowledge. Dawn Chorus and its sister companies like PubTrawlr all leverage different points of the research to practice cycles.

Jon received his Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed a research fellowship in the US. Dept of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Public Health Systems, Finance, and Quality Program. His dissertation on organization readiness forms the backbone of much of our improvement consultation.

Dawn Chorus Subject Matter Experts

We have a deep bench of colleagues and friends to help us out with specialized challenges, methods, and problems.

Kalie Wertz

Kalie Wertz is a social impact researcher and educator, working at the intersection of public and private for the last decade. She is currently the Senior Research Coordinator for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Her research explores activism practices of workers and policies of corporations, specifically through digital and online communities. She has also held positions as a research fellow at Columbia Business School and Wharton School of Business.

Prior to working in academic research, she spent a decade working in inclusive community engagement, project management, and advocacy communications for academic and nonprofit organizations, including Temple University, Urban Affairs Coalition, and The Food Trust. Originally hailing from California, Kalie holds a double Bachelors of Arts from the University of California Santa Barbara in Communications and Sociology, as well as a minor in Professional Writing. She served for two years as an AmeriCorps public servant before enrolling in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where she received a Masters in Public Administration with a focus in nonprofit management and economic development.

She received Fel’s 2017 Student Public Service Award for her commitment to public service during her degree work. Currently, she serves as a mentor for high school students bridging to college, and is an advocate for civic engagement and hunger alleviation. Learn more about her work at kaliewertz.com or contact her at hello@kaliewertz.com

Dr. Elena Tamanas Ragusa

Dr. Elena Tamanas Ragusa, President and Founder of Drive Evaluation Studio, is an organizational and community psychologist. Elena built Drive Evaluation Studio out of a desire to partner with communities to strengthen the systems in which they live, work, learn, and play — and out of a need to make research and evaluation accessible to people doing important work in these spaces. The Studio works with nonprofits, foundations, and universities to use data to inform their work, determine and build on what is working in their practices, and tell the story about their impact in their community.

Elena has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, program assessment, systems evaluation, organizational strategy, and evaluation coaching. As a consultant, she serves as a capacity builder, evaluator, critical thought partner, and coach. Elena stays connected to students and theory in the classroom, serving as adjunct faculty whose teaching includes community psychology, group dynamics, industrial/organizational psychology, social psychology, and program evaluation methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Before building out the Studio, Elena was the senior executive director of enrollment strategy and analytics for Rutgers University–New Brunswick, where her work focused on using data to design and execute collaborative strategies to enroll, retain, and graduate a diverse and accomplished student body at the university. Prior to that, Elena designed, managed, and directed the research and evaluation of college access programs for Rutgers University’s pre-college program portfolio. And before her 10 years at Rutgers, she served as a project manager at OMG Center for Collaborative Learning (now Equal Measure) – a national research and evaluation consulting firm based in Philadelphia, PA. She has worked in Human Assets at Teach for America’s national headquarters and consulted to New Jersey public school districts on issues of organizational effectiveness and on the development of college preparatory research methods courses for high school students.

Elena holds B.A.s in psychology and sociology from Rutgers University, and she earned an M.A. and doctorate of psychology in organizational psychology – with a focus on communities – from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.