Our Team
With more than 70 years of combined experience working with nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, healthcare foundations and social good organizations, we are here to help your organization grow and scale the impact of your work.
Jessica Payne is the founder and owner of Mockingbird Analytics, a community and non-profit research and evaluation company, which she comes to with a decade of research and evaluation project management experience in government, community and academic settings. She is also the co-founder of Mockingbird Incubator a nonprofit that provides incubation services to new and emerging nonprofits. Prior to founding Mockingbird, Jessica was the Research and Evaluation Manager for CASA of Los Angeles, where she managed large scale data system conversion projects with more than 500+ users, as well as all original research and strategic planning. Previously with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), Jessica worked with a wide range of constituents, stakeholders, and agencies to create effective program evaluation strategies. Working with the GRYD Office Jessica designed and managed the Summer Night Lights program evaluation for multiple years in addition to participating in the development of the Intervention Crisis Response and Intervention Family Case Management research components. Prior to that Jessica worked on multiple National Institute of Justice and National Institute of Health Studies on the California Juvenile Justice system and Gang Social Identity studies with the USC Center for Research on Crime and Social Control. She holds a Masters in Urban Planning with an emphasis on Social and Community Development from the University of Southern California’s Price School of Policy, Planning, and Development. She also holds certificates in Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Development and Ethical Leadership.
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Pamela has more than 7 years of experience in the financial sector of Colombia. Prior to coming to Los Angeles in 2017 to pursue a Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, Pamela studied Financial Engineering in Bogota, Colombia and worked for the 3 of the 4 biggest pension funds in the country in the areas of Risk Management, Strategy Evaluation and Portfolio Administration. She administered more than $220 million government entities' trust business in local government securities market. Pamela's background is in quantitative evaluation and financial analysis. Pamela is passionate about helping nonprofits and social enterprises to solve the most challenging social problems and be able to connect and support them in finding innovative profit models.
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Rachel Francavillo joined Mockingbird Analytics in 2021 with over ten years of experience in the education sector, where she honed her leadership, communication, and strategic thinking skills to produce dramatically positive outcomes for students and school communities. Outside of her role as a teacher, Rachel served as a team leader, instructional coach, enrichment coordinator, curriculum writer, and board member.
Rachel has a professional background in the performing arts, which has helped her become an interdisciplinary and cross-sectional thinker. She earned her B.A. from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she designed her own unique plan of study and concentration, exploring storytelling as a community and peace-building activity and educational process, as well as the relationship between art and rhetoric. Her lifelong passion for the arts, culture, and education inspired her to pursue her M.S in Arts Administration from Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, which she will complete in 2022. Her current thesis research focuses on women in creative and entrepreneurial leadership. She is excited to lend her strengths in organization, communication, and creativity to manage systems with efficiency.
In her free time, she can be found at any live music event, on the beach reading a fantasy novel, or on a mountain camping across the country with her partner, Paul, and their dog, Johnny.
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Ejiro has over 15 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising in Southern California and the Bay Area. She is passionate about nonprofits, having worked for several nonprofits including Ronald McDonald House Bay Area, Goodwill of Orange County, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Emanate Health Foundation (formerly Citrus Valley Health Foundation) and Maryvale. She holds a Bachelor's from Meredith College and a Master's from California State University, Fullerton. Ejiro is a board secretary for Decolonizing the Music Room (TX), board president for Jileng Kunda Project (NC) and board chair for Mockingbird Incubator. In her free time, she enjoys researching her family genealogy online, visiting local breweries and playing with her dogs, Sunny and Ursa.
Gabby (she/her) comes to Mockingbird Analytics following tenures in research and education. In these positions, she partnered her innate curiosity with communication, critical thinking, and team-building abilities to help foster deeply collaborative environments.
Gabby cultivated her research and analysis skills at Muhlenberg College. This small, liberal arts atmosphere allowed her to explore the unexpected interconnectedness between neuroscience and literature, and to fully appreciate that the best research comes from an intersectional, transdisciplinary approach. Currently pursuing her Master’s of Public Health at the University of Southern California with a concentration in biostatistics and epidemiology, Gabby’s academic passions lie in addiction research.
In her spare time, Gabby enjoys catching a movie, hiking through the mountains, reading 100 books at a time, and cuddling with her cat Mila.
Marisa (she/they) is a community-based researcher and educator focused on advancing urban policies through racial and gender equity. She examines how identity and emotions shape people’s access to places and services across the lifespan. Marisa uses trauma-informed evaluation, community-based participatory action research, and qualitative methodologies to integrate social movement practices into urban planning. Her research has been published in top urban planning journals. Marisa has worked with the Equity Research Institute, the ONE Gay & Lesbian National Archive, the American Planning Association, LA Freewaves, LAANE, and the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine. Marisa is a Visiting Professor in Urban Planning and Real Estate Law at UC Berkeley. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning & Development from the University of Southern California and a Masters of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. She enjoys biking with her wife and puppy, especially when the ride ends with french fries.
Marielena is an experienced Grant Writer with a demonstrated history of working with non-profit organizations. She is skilled in nonprofit program assessment for Grant Readiness, Research, and Project Management, coordinating grant submissions and creating standards of procedures implementing effective strategies and practices. She enjoys taking part in strategic brainstorming sessions and contributing to creative projects.
Marielena has a GPC, a grant professional credential, she earned in 2022. She spent 12 years in the education field, specializing in special education and bilingual education, and earned her Master of Education from UCLA. As an educator, building rapport and facilitating discussions between teachers, students, and parents was key in program planning and implementing student services. She takes pride in transferring these collaborative practices within the nonprofit sector as a part of the grants process, working closely with program staff to discuss and define program needs, as well as defining and determining best practices and strategies across fundraising and development.
Dr. Joél Arvizo-Zavala (they/them) is a researcher, writer, and leader in consulting and coaching. Their research has focused primarily on equity and social justice in the civil-criminal-legal system, education, and health care. Past projects include research on racial-ethnic disparities in evictions, understanding reentry for probationers and parolees, and racial and gender identity development in BIPOC youth. They have a recent published chapter in the book Children and Trauma: Critical Perspectives for Meeting the Needs of Diverse Educational Communities and hold a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy.
Arthur has seven years of experience managing and directing social enterprise and non-profit organizations. From working with organizations supporting farmers in rural Uganda to real estate organizations in Los Angeles, his main expertise lies in creating systems that help provide clarity to diverse teams as they pursue their shared goals. It’s his belief and passion that the right integrated system can both improve operational efficiency and track accurate outcomes. This conviction led him East Africa where he directed a social enterprise before returning to Los Angeles to pursue an MBA at the University of Southern California. His MBA and management experience have been the foundation to his work with various consulting clients as they as they implement Salesforce, Tableau, and custom software applications. Arthur will not only focus on programming your database, but he will help synthesize your broader operational goals into a system that provides clarity for you, your teams, and your stakeholders.
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Dr. Robert Garcia is a versatile social science researcher and leader with a combination of experience in academia, non-profits, data analytics, and tech. Robert is passionate about social justice, public health, environmentalism, education, animal welfare, and the ways social science can inform advocacy. His research has addressed a wide variety of topics including peer pressure effects on motivation, social conformity in juries, how to use social media to create buy-in to sustainable practices, and how people think about environmental issues and come to support climate policy. Robert was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund and has published in academic psychology journals and environmental activist handbooks alike. As the Director of Advocacy and Outreach at Tri-County Health Network, he supervised a wide variety of bilingual health equity campaigns for causes including multicultural advocacy, immigrant rights, mental health, suicide awareness and prevention, and COVID-19 vaccination for underserved rural communities. In his free time, Robert can be found playing classical piano, reading, exploring museums, lifting weights, and seeking out delicious vegan food.