DIR is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Sylvia Epps to the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. DIR’s CEO/President, Dr. Russell Jackson, continues to implement steps for the long-term success of DIR. This move reflects his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition of DIR’s leadership in the coming years. Dr. Jackson states, “I am excited that we are positioning Dr. Epps to take the reins of DIR in the not-too-distant future and build even further on our excellent reputation for quality, responsiveness, and being an exceptional partner—for clients and staff.”  As COO, Dr. Epps will expand her direction of the operational and administrative components of DIR, while continuing to play a leadership or advisory role on select projects as she also continues as the Director of Research Operations.

Sylvia completed her Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Texas at Austin. She completed a postdoctoral faculty training program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Epps has managed major multi-year, multi-site data collection research projects for federal clients, research organizations, and foundations. She has led survey efforts using multiple modes of data collection and achieved notably high response rates with families, youth, and education program directors. She is currently leading the national evaluation of a racial healing initiative for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and directing DIR’s support for the evaluation of a major initiative of another foundation focusing on a citywide intervention providing wraparound services targeting children from birth to eight years old and their parents. Dr. Epps has also investigated and published longitudinal studies on low-income children’s contexts of development from an ecological systems perspective.

Having been on staff for over 10 years, and a DIR consultant before that, Dr. Epps has made a significant contribution to DIR’s continued growth to become one of the leading minority-owned firms in the country specializing in survey data collection with hard-to-reach populations; social, education, and workforce development research and evaluation; and analytic technical assistance. DIR’s future looks bright for our next 35 years with the steps being taken now for long-term success.