Research Associate

Trista Deame, M.S.

Research Associate

Since joining Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc. in 2007, Trista Deame has provided administrative and research support to project teams throughout the organization. She also serves as an integral part of the corporate administrative office, performing a wide range of tasks in support of its daily operation.

Ms. Deame was part of the field team for an assessment study of Disproportionate Minority Contact of juveniles in the juvenile justice system on behalf of the Louisiana Commission of Law Enforcement. She conducted site visits, performed interviews and data collection activities at various parishes throughout the state. For a study on behalf of the Iowa Department of Human Services involving youth as they transition out of care, Ms. Deame has scheduled and conducted telephone surveys with difficult-to-contact youth to obtain baseline information about the services they were receiving.

For a recently completed workload study conducted on behalf of the Child Welfare Division of Westchester County, New York, Ms. Deame performed a variety of data management functions. She prepared reference tools for local participants and tested web-based data collection instruments which were later used to measure the time needed to handle cases and the time workers have available for casework.

During the legislatively mandated statewide performance audit of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services conducted during 2008, Ms. Deame managed a complex and comprehensive schedule of interviews, responded to stakeholder calls from across the state, and provided extensive data entry support for this large-scale audit.

Earlier in 2008, Ms. Deame was part of the field team for a case review effort performed on behalf of the Georgia Department of Human Resources. She conducted on-site case reviews to ensure eligibility determinations were correctly made and documentation was available in the case files to support the eligibility determinations made by workers as part of Georgia’s Title IV-E Program Improvement Plan.

Prior to joining the firm, she served as a supervisor in the Russell Sage College office of Annual Giving, during which time she assisted in outreach to preserve alumni relations with the college.

Ms. Deame received her B.A. in Biopsychology/Pre-Med from Russell Sage College in May of 2008. She received her M.S. in Forensic Mental Health from the Sage Colleges Graduate School in Troy, NY in 2011 and has completed 5.5 hours of training in providing trauma informed care to victims and the mentally ill.

Juvenile Justice

From Connecticut DMC Evaluation Proposal – January 2015

Trista Deame, M.S., leads the assessment of DMC in the Louisiana and Virginia juvenile justice systems. She conducts site visits, meeting with local stakeholders, to collect data to identify the extent to which DMC exists. She meets with key stakeholders including District Attorneys, probation staff and local law enforcement, to discuss potential reasons for disproportionality and explores steps localities can take to reduce DMC as well as monitor initiatives they implement. Ms. Deame meets regularly with the states’ DMC advisory boards to help shape the direction they should take to meet federal requirements and reduce DMC.

Ms. Deame was instrumental in developing the automated tool, JJTrac, which is in use by several of Louisiana’s parishes to track youth in the juvenile justice system. She worked closely with the firm’s programmers to develop an easy-to-use application which enables local stakeholders to auto-generate their RRIs. The tool allows stakeholders to test variables which influence DMC or juvenile involvement overall and measure the impact of intervention strategies as they are implemented.

From Virginia Cross Systems Assessment Proposal – May 2014

Trista Deame, M.S.

As Project Manager for this engagement, Ms. Deame will be responsible for oversight of the day-to-day activities to assess the prevalence of dually-involved youth in Virginia’s Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems. She will serve as the primary contact person with DCJS. Throughout the project, Ms. Deame will meet with DCJS and DJJ staff to review and finalize the work plan, guide the work of the project team, provide updates to State leaders, and draft and revise the final report. Here guidance to the team will include input on the analysis of data which will be used to analyze the demographic characteristics of the three populations as well as recidivism rates for juvenile justice involved youth. She will also administer surveys to localities and analyze the results. (IV.B.2.b, third bullet)

Situated in HZA’s Troy, New York office, Ms. Deame has led the assessment of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the Louisiana Juvenile Justice System and is currently managing the third round of the study. She conducts site visits, meeting with parish stakeholders, to collect data to identify the extent to which DMC exists within juvenile justice. She then meets with key stakeholders including District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, probation staff and local law enforcement, to discuss potential reasons for disproportionality. At the meetings she explores steps the parishes can take to reduce disproportionality. Ms. Deame meets regularly with the state’s DMC Committee and Justice Board to help shape the direction Louisiana should take to meet its federal requirements. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Deame was instrumental in developing an automated tool which is in use by several of Louisiana’s parishes to track youth in juvenile justice. She worked closely with the firm’s analysts to develop an easy-to-use application which enables parish stakeholders to auto-generate their RRIs as parish staff record basic case level data. Commonly known as the Juvenile Justice Tracking Tool, it allows stakeholders to test the variables which are influencing DMC or juvenile involvement overall and measure the impact of intervention strategies as they are implemented. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Deame has used her interview skills and ability to establish a rapport with stakeholders for other engagements, as well. She recently participated in the process and outcome evaluation of the Fairbanks (Alaska) Juvenile Treatment Court (FJTC). The FJTC is a therapeutic court established for youth with mental health and co-occurring disorders that likely contributed to delinquency. The two part evaluation was conducted to examine the implementation process of FJTC and the effectiveness of reducing recidivism and improving treatment outcomes for participants. For this evaluation, she conducted case record reviews and interviews with key stakeholders to learn more about court operations and services provided to juveniles with mental health and substance abuse issues. Ms. Deame conducted an extensive literature review of practices which target youth with behavioral health issues as well as substance abuse involvement. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Deame also manages a the National Youth in Transition Database study for the Iowa Department of Human Services involving youth as they transition out of foster care, scheduling and overseeing telephone surveys with difficult-to-contact youth. HZA contacts the youth at baseline and re-contacts them two and four years later when they are 19 and 21. Ms. Deame led the effort to maintain contact with the youth. To date, HZA has met or exceeded the rate at which states are required to complete the surveys. This achievement is in large part due to Ms. Deame’s ability to establish a rapport with the youth and their caregivers and to develop creative strategies to locate the youth and gain their cooperation. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Recently, Ms. Deame became the project manager of the Diligent Recruitment of Families federal grant for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. Implemented to recruit families for children twelve and older, Arkansas’ Creating Connections for Children Project (ARCCC) will focus general and targeted recruitment of long term foster care families for children over the age of twelve who have been in care for 24 months or more. The project involves both a process and outcome evaluation to assess the implementation of the ARCCC as well as its impact on increasing the number of foster care beds and on factors such as placement stability and permanency. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet)

From Virginia DMC Assessment Proposal – April 2014

Trista Deame, M.S.

As Project Manager for this engagement, Ms. Deame will be responsible for oversight of the day-to-day activities which are carried out to assess the reasons for DMC in the select localities across Virginia. She will serve as the primary contact person with DCJS. Throughout the project, Ms. Deame will meet with DCJS and DJJ staff to review and finalize the work plan, guide the work of the project team and provide updates to State leaders, and draft and revise the final report. Here guidance to the team will include input on the analysis of data which will be used to identify contributing mechanisms as well as the writing of the individual localities’ assessment reports. (B.2.b. bullet three)

Situated in HZA’s Troy, New York office, Ms. Deame has led the assessment of disproportionate minority contact in Louisiana. She conducts site visits, meeting with parish stakeholders, to collect data to identify the extent to which DMC exists within the juvenile justice system. Follow-up visits are held with key stakeholders, including District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, probation staff and local law enforcement, to discuss potential reasons for disproportionality. These site visits have been instrumental in facilitating discussions among parish stakeholders to explore reasons for the overrepresentation of minority youth and steps which parishes can take to test those hypotheses. Ms. Deame meets regularly with the state’s DMC Committee and Justice Board to help shape the direction Louisiana should take to meet its federal requirements. (B.2.b. bullet four and B.2.b. bullet five)

Ms. Deame has met with resistance from a few of the parishes in Louisiana. Her intimate knowledge of the DMC Reduction Model has, however, gained the participation of virtually all of those parishes. (B.2.b. bullet four and B.2.b. bullet five)

Louisiana’s efforts to implement the DMC Reduction Model has been hampered, at least in part, by its lack of a statewide reporting system. While parishes are required to submit data, at least in the aggregate for some of the contact points, there is no centralized system. In fact, many parishes do not have any electronic means to track youth involved in the system. Ms. Deame was instrumental in the development of an automated tool which is in use by several of Louisiana’s parishes. She worked closely with the firm’s analysts to develop an easy-to-use application which enables parish stakeholders to auto-generate their RRIs as parish staff record basic case level data. The application, commonly known as the Juvenile Justice Tracking Tool, is equipped to allow stakeholders to test the variables which are influencing DMC or juvenile involvement overall and measure the impact of intervention strategies as they are implemented. (B.2.b. bullet four and B.2.b. bullet five)

Ms. Deame has used her interview skills and ability to establish a rapport with stakeholders for other engagements, as well. She recently participated in the evaluation of the Fairbanks (Alaska) Treatment Court. She conducted case record reviews and interviews with key stakeholders to learn more about the operations and services being provided to juveniles with mental health and substance abuse issues. Ms. Deame conducted an extensive literature review of practices which target youth with behavioral health issues as well as substance abuse involvement. (B.2.b bullet one)

Ms. Deame also manages a study conducted for the Iowa Department of Human Services involving youth as they transition out of foster care, scheduling and overseeing telephone surveys with difficult-to-contact youth to obtain baseline information about the services they receive and their preparedness to live independently. HZA is in the midst of completing the second round of baseline outcome surveys for Iowa. Youth are also surveyed two and four years later, i.e., when they are 19 and 21. Ms. Deame led the effort to maintain contact with the youth who were asked to participate in the follow-up outcome survey portion of the National Youth in Transition Database effort. To date, HZA has met, often exceeding, the rate at which states are required to complete the surveys. This achievement is in large part due to Ms. Deame’s ability to establish a rapport with the youth and their caregivers and to develop creative strategies to locate the youth and gain their cooperation. (B.2.b bullet one)

From Oregon DMC Evaluation Proposal – April 2013

Trista Deame, M.S.

Research Analyst

Trista Deame will work closely with Mr. Rubin, serving as the technical assistance lead for the local programs. Ms. Deame has led the field teams for HZA’s work on the Disproportionate Minority Contact in the juvenile justice system for the Louisiana Commission of Law Enforcement. She serves as HZA’s main contact with LCLE, and she conducts site visits to meet with local District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, local law enforcement officials and other key stakeholders. In addition, she is responsible for managing the data collection and analysis on DMC in Louisiana and for managing the production of the required reports.

Ms. Deame has helped design, test and implement a tracking tool for parishes to use, because many of the agencies dealing with juvenile justice in Louisiana have no electronic means of collecting and storing data. The Juvenile Justice Tracking Tool enables parishes to capture basic characteristics of youth at each contact point, including race; to measure DMC using federally prescribed Relative Rate Index calculations; and to identify potential causes of DMC and measure the impact of strategies which parishes implement to mitigate disproportionality.

In addition to her work in Louisiana, Ms. Deame is also managing federally required data collection related to older youth in foster care. This project, which is being conducted for Iowa’s Department of Human Services, requires contacting youth still in care when they turn 17 and then following a random sample of them as they turn 19 and 21, respectively. Ms. Deame’s efforts have allowed Iowa to obtain responses from enough youth to meet the federal requirements.

From Wisconsin DMC Program Evaluation Services Proposal – March 2013

Trista Deame, M.S.

Research Analyst

Trista Deame will work closely with Mr. Rubins, serving as a point of contact for the county program leads. Ms. Deame has led the field teams for an assessment study of Disproportionate Minority Contact of juveniles in the juvenile justice system on behalf of the Louisiana Commission of Law Enforcement (LCLE). She conducts site visits, performs interviews with local District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, local law enforcement officials and other key stakeholders, and she is responsible for managing the data collection and analysis. Ms. Deame has presented at advisory board meetings and works with LCLE to improve its data collection systems. Based on the meetings she has had with parish representatives, Ms. Deame has developed research proposals to better assess the causes of DMC and monitoring plans to evaluate the effectiveness of selected strategies.

For a study on behalf of the Iowa Department of Human Services involving youth as they transition out of care, Ms. Deame has managed the scheduling and conduct of telephone surveys with difficult-to-contact youth to obtain baseline information about the services they were receiving. She is currently leading the effort to maintain contact with surveyed youth who are being asked to participate in the follow-up outcome survey portion of the National Youth in Transition Database effort.

Ms. Deame received her B.A. in Biopsychology/Pre-Med from Russell Sage College in May of 2008. She received her M.S. in Forensic Mental Health from the Sage Colleges Graduate School in Troy, NY in 2011 and has received training in providing trauma informed care to victims and the mentally ill.

From Alaska Court System Evaluation of the Fairbanks Juvenile Treatment Court Proposal – March 2013