COVIAN CONSULTING, INC.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Maria Elena Villar holds a Ph.D. in Communication and a Master in Public Health from University of Miami, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Columbia University. Her experience includes program evaluation at the national and international level as well as strategic communication for social change. Prior to co-founding Covian Consulting, Inc., she was the Director of Research at the Partnership for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Miami and a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Child Health Policy at Nova Southeastern University. A published researcher, Dr. Villar is an associate professor at Florida International University. Need help on your next big project? Our co-founders, Dr. Maritza Concha and Dr. Maria Elena Villar were brought together by their passions to put their knowledge and experience into service for their community. The paths that brought them to where they are today are similar. Dr. Concha moved to the United States at the age of 16 with her parents from Lima, Peru. In Peru, she witnessed social injustices and the lack of a government response to the economic and social problems. This was the primary motivator that encouraged Dr. Concha’s family to immigrate to the United States. Dr. Villar, a Puerto Rican native, has lived in numerous places throughout South America and the Caribbean. Working as a health promoter in Santiago, Chile, she realized the importance of community-based efforts to improve people’s lives. They met as master’s students while working at the University of Miami where they began collaborating on projects to help nonprofits in the local community. In 2003, they decided to take their passion for helping others and their educational expertise in evaluation services to co-found Covian Consulting, Inc. They use their extensive experience and knowledge base to collaborate with nonprofit organizations in evaluating their programs and articulating the impact of these programs in a meaningful way. Since 2003, they have worked with numerous partners at the local, state, and national levels. Today, Maritza and Maria Elena both have their doctorates. Now Drs. Concha and Villar respectively, after a decade of experience in providing evaluation services, uniquely understand how to deal with diverse communities and staff to bring out the best of nonprofit organizations in achieving their social missions. Your drive to make change possible in your organization constantly inspires Covian’s drive to obtain the best outcome for your organization and your community. Need help on your next big project? Need help on your next big project? Maria Elena Villar holds a Ph.D. in Communication and a Master in Public Health from University of Miami, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Columbia University. Her experience includes program evaluation at the national and international level as well as strategic communication for social change. Prior to co-founding Covian Consulting, Inc., she was the Director of Research at the Partnership for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Miami and a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Child Health Policy at Nova Southeastern University. A published researcher, Dr. Villar is an associate professor at Florida International University. Amani Alkowni received a Bachelor’s Degree in social sciences from Arizona State University, graduating with honors (Cum Laude / Order of the Coif). She is currently furthering her formal education at the University of Missouri pursuing a master in Public Affairs. Ms. Alkowni works as a research assistant at Covian Consulting and has worked on projects including Planned Parenthood, Mujer, and EnFamilia. Ms. Alkowni’s research and evaluation experience allow her to work on projects with such notable organizations as the International Rescue Committee. Ms. Alkowni also has experience working with the public sector where she interned with the Department of Children and Families working with the Refugee Services Department. Her responsibilities included collaborating with service agencies, developing a community toolkit for the refugee crises, and facilitating task force meetings. Ms. Alkowni is fluent in Arabic and Pashtu and assists with data collection for the refugee population as a Research Assistant Customer in the Survey Evaluation of Comprehensive Refugee Services funded by the Department of Children and Family (DCF), focusing on her target population of the Near East and South Asia refugees. Need help on your next big project? Capacity building techniques and tools are necessary for an organization to recognize its strengths and identify its weakness. Covian Consulting can help you to take your organization in achieving its mission by providing capacity building in: Organizations are effective when they establish reasonable and measurable goals, design activities around a logic model, possess the skills and resources they need, are culturally competent, and have mechanisms in place to monitor progress. We help programs and partnerships work effectively via planning and implementation of evaluation and research designs. We use both quantitative (surveys, measurements, database analysis, statistical modeling) and qualitative (interviews/focus groups, observations) methods. We also practice the principles of community based participatory research (CBPR), and value the community members as equal partners in the research process. We focus on internal and external capacity building to assist organizations in having the necessary tools and knowledge to achieve its missions. Internal capacity refers to internal processes such as human resources, financial practices, leadership, staff capacity training etc. External capacity deals with relationship between individuals such as interagency collaboration, organizational culture and relationship with funders (Hudson, 2005). We focus on results-oriented strategic communication that takes into account local context, motivation of the target audience and goals of the communication effort. We help clients analyze and segment their audiences, set objectives, and develop appropriate communication strategies.