Kelly Piccinino

Kelly Piccinino is MAI's Director of Research Operations and Senior Research Associate. She is a seasoned mixed-methods evaluator with over 20 years experience leading numerous evaluations related to education, health, out-of-school time, and workforce development programming.

Kelly, trained in Sociology, adopts an intersectional approach to enhance program equity by considering the overlapping systems of oppression participants may face based on race, gender, and social class. She leads large multi-year research projects and evaluations, including Advancing Cities in Philadelphia (JP Morgan Chase), the Change Leadership Initiative Storytelling Project (RWJF), and Philadelphia’s Rebuild Evaluation. She also works with multiple local Philadelphia non-profits through two distinct evaluation capacity-building initiatives and other evaluation projects.

Prior to MAI, Kelly worked in a number of applied research settings such as Westat, Research for Action, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) district. Born in South Philly, she is the youngest of six children and a first-generation college graduate, with a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Sociology from Stetson University.

Kelly, her husband John, and three children live in New Jersey and love playing sports, watching movies, and taking trips to Legoland.