Allison B. Taylor, PhD, MSW

Allison is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Community Inclusion. She has over 20 years of experience in research, evaluation, teaching, and direct service. She began her career as a social worker and transformed a clinical interest in cultural responses to trauma into ethnographic research on the topic, earning a PhD in anthropology with her dissertation about the Somali diaspora.

At the ICI, Allison specializes in qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation, with a focus on employment and education of people with disabilities. She draws on her experience as a clinician and an ethnographer to gather firsthand experiences and perspectives through the use of interviews, focus groups, participant-observation, and surveys. As an evaluator, Allison uses these qualitative approaches, along with quantitative data, to analyze and inform projects, policies, and programs.

Allison directs the evaluation of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission’s Transition Pathways Services project, a vocational rehabilitation model demonstration for transition-age youth focused on work-based learning. At the ICI, she has also led the evaluation of the Job-Driven Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center, directed a longitudinal study of VR customers who are SSDI beneficiaries for the SGA Model Demonstration, and conducted qualitative research for Think College.

Email Allison Taylor.