sturmstories.com

Curriculum Vitae (January 2023)

ADDRESS
Daniel Sturm
3022 Christopher Ave.
Baltimore, Maryland 21214
E-mail: Sturmstories AT gmail DOT com

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Daniel Sturm is a senior researcher, M&E expert, and humanitarian aid professional. With a deep background in evaluation, presenting, publishing, proposal development, policy research, higher education, and technical assistance, Mr. Sturm has contributed to empowering marginalized populations and raising organizational excellence. People skills, data analysis, writing and research savviness make him an asset to any organization attempting to raise its profile and increase program effectiveness. Mr. Sturm has overseen federal, private, and nonprofit programs, with international supervisory experience in the U.S. and in Germany. Mr. Sturm serves as the Vice President for Learning, Measurement and Evaluation at the Maryland Food Bank. He is a member of the Urban Institute’s Measure4Change Advisory Council.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Vice President for Learning, Measurement and Evaluation, Maryland Food Bank, 03/2021 Current (Baltimore, MD)

Leadership—Served as the primary point person to accelerate the organization’s growth in measurement, learning, and evaluation. Advanced Food Emergency Early Warning System research and Social Return-On-Investment analysis. Member on the Urban Institute’s Project Measure4Change Advisory Council.
Evaluation—Developed needs assessments, impact analyses, logic models and evaluation plans for flagship programs and pilots. Guided indicator management for data-driven hunger relief programming. Examples include the Maryland Hunger Map to visualize impacts on food security, housing stability, and employment. An inter-agency Food Emergency Early Warning System, and three published research reports on “Food Insecurity in Maryland” (July 2022), “A Research Guide to Child Food Insufficiency” (March 2022) and “Do Pandemic Benefits Decrease Demand for Charitable Food?” (November 2021).
Learning—Improved organization-wide data analytics knowhow and trend analyses through new dashboards, community of practice exchanges and best practices collection. Led the development of a new interactive Learning Platform, a 12-month series of M&E workshop event, a landscape assessment for a new Workforce Development Pilot program. Developed M&E learning guides and organized a food bank innovation speaker series .

Director of Research and Impact Analysis, United Way of Central Maryland , September 2019 -Present (Baltimore, MD)

Program Development and Evaluation—Provided research support for development of new and ongoing improvement of current programs; Reviewed and summarized research on best-practices, emerging national models and innovative new programs; Presented analysis/research summaries through white papers and presentations to leadership; Informed ongoing program development, strategic planning and investment decisions.
Survey Analysis and Needs Assessments— Continuously monitored research, promising practices and practitioner resources relevant to direct service work, and assessed client and community needs. Examples included a zip-code level analysis of food assistance needs, and an impact survey designed to assess the socioeconomic and organizational impacts of the pandemic (148 nonprofit groups participated in the survey).
Policy Research & Legislation—Developed a legislative proposal, “Power to People with Critical Medical Needs,” which enables 211 MD United Way Helpline to refer more people for energy assistance.
Return on Investment Analysis—Completed ROI analysis of United Way’s Homelessness Prevention Program , its 2-1-1 Helpline and Neighborhood Zone Family Center for parenting teens.
Grant Seeking Support & Grant Development—Provided research support about innovative funding models and their requirements; Researched new grant opportunities with an emphasis on state and federal grants; Provided research and writing support for grant proposals, in areas such as: the development of a statement of need; and best-practices research to support programmatic approaches.

Research & Evaluation Manager, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 03/2010 - 08/2019 (Washington, D.C.)

Leadership – Senior Management Team member. Established successful national community- and faith-based volunteer program (POWR), secured $5.5M in funding, elevated learnings across a network of 70+ local affiliates.
Monitoring and Evaluation – Developed a statistical tool, Resettlement Indicators and Performance Evaluation to capture newcomer integration and program performance outcomes across all major grants.
Proposal Writing and Grant Reporting – Contributed content to several successful multi-million-dollar proposals with DOS, ACF/HHS, as well as privately-funded projects. Regular reporting on multiple grants and initiatives.
Research, Publications, Learning – Developed research collaborations with social scientists, edited a community of practice to track relevant research. Lead organizer of 14 successful national immigration conferences with personal participation in more than 115 webinars, US congressional briefings, and conference workshops.

Consultancy: Headquarters MEAL Officer, International Orthodox Christian Charities (Baltimore, MD), March-June 2018

Results Framework — Developed an agencywide results framework to measure progress against global indicators, as well as faith-based and project-specific data points.
Proposal Writing and Grant Reporting – Contributed content to several successful multi-million-dollar proposals with USAID, OFDA, OCHA, DKH, UNICEF. Regular M&E report contributions.
Evaluation – Managed external evaluation of USG-funded project, “Relief for Hearing Impaired and Disabled Syrian Refugees in Jordan.” Coordinated external and internal evaluations (Jordan, Ethiopia, Greece), developed Terms of Reference with contractors, provided MEAL guidance, published recommendations and donor reports.
Learning Library – Developed a Monitoring and Evaluation Learning Library that provides access to hands-on learning materials for humanitarian aid workers, with the goal of maximizing the positive impact of relief work.
Beneficiary Impact – Completed a 2017 beneficiary study to capture the reach and impact of IOCC’s humanitarian aid work across 15 country operations.

DHHS-ORR National Consultant, Lutheran Immigration an Refugee Service, RefugeeWorks, 2007-2010 (Baltimore, MD)

Monitoring and Evaluation—Developed systems to measure self-sufficiency outcomes for CBOs.
National Publications – Managed the production of RefugeeWorks (renamed Higher Advantage) nationally circulated publications, including a quarterly newsletter, website, electronic listserv, and white paper series.
Research – Researched immigrant employment and recertification solutions and disseminated best practices among voluntary agencies, ethnic community groups and employers.
Education – Provided individual technical assistance to refugees, political asylees and other immigrants, as well as human service organizations, job developers, employers, NGOs, and government partners. Collaborated with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement on technical assistance and curriculum development projects.
Proposal Development – Developed proposals for grants and projects, including federal and private donors.

Journalism Professor, Department of English, Youngstown State University, 2004-2007 (Youngstown, Ohio)

Adult Education – Taught Professional Writing and Editing, Feature Writing, News Writing and Selected Topics in Journalism. Served on faculty committees and as an advisor for student senior projects for journalism majors.

Mentoring – Faculty advisor for the student newspaper, The Jambar, the student poetry journal, The Penguin Review and the YSU student yearbook, Neon. Managed student staff for university publications.

Writing – Advised students in developing portfolios, publishing websites, preparing stories and senior projects.

Prisoner Advocacy Coordinator and Nonprofit Board Member, 2004- 2007

Community Organizing – Worked with renowned civil rights advocates/lawyers Staughton and sAlice Lynd and numerous regional grassroots groups, such as the Youngstown Prison Forum, Catholic prison chaplains and ACLU-Ohio, to help coordinate a Northeast Ohio grassroots initiative for prison reform.

Communications – Established a popular regional listserv and website for prisoner advocacy (www.prisonersolidarity.org).

News Writing – Researched and bylined one cover story per month for this alternative newsweekly, following a traditional AP style.

Impact – Stories picked up by other outlets include an interview with Kurt Vonnegut, an investigative story on the long-lasting scars of the eugenics movement, as well as the dumping of a major piece of public art (Michael Heizer’s ‘This Equals That’), "Fighting Factory Farms ," "Anthrax Scare at MSU leaves long-term scars ," "Inside Sparty's Third Reich Roots ," "GM - Fatal Handshake ?" An archive of my English-language publications is available at here (select highlights).

Internet Researcher and Managing Editor,Media Tenor International (Bonn and Leipzig, Germany), 2000-02

Prisoner Advocacy Coordinator and Nonprofit Board Member, 2004- 2007

Internet Researcher and Managing Editor,Media Tenor International (Bonn and Leipzig, Germany), 2000-02

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346371624_Mental_Health_Impact_of_COVID-19

2017. Daniel Sturm. Impact Evaluation of National Community Engagement Project. ROI and Social Impact. Welcoming America.

2017. Daniel Sturm. “Resettlement Indicators and Performance Evaluation.” Impact Evaluation. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services.