Scientist, Survey Methods
Washington, D.C.

Dr. Diana Stukel has more than 25 years of experience working as a survey statistician. She holds a master’s degree and PhD in mathematics with a specialization in statistics from Carleton University.

Diana, what do you do at FANTA?

One of my main functions within FANTA is to provide technical assistance to USAID/Food for Peace (FFP) in relation to their evaluation function – I lead the “E” part of “M&E” within FANTA!

What has been your proudest moment on the FANTA project?

In this role, I have provided technical assistance over the last 5 years in relation to baseline studies undertaken in 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America – with three more coming down the pipeline this year! The technical assistance has run from soup to nuts – everything from participating in the in-country planning workshops, designing the related population-based quantitative surveys and qualitative studies, monitoring the in-country training of interviewers prior to field work, participating in weekly calls before, during and after field work, reviewing all the third party firm deliverables on behalf of USAID/FFP, and attending baseline study report dissemination events at USAID.  I have been intensely involved in this activity from the first year that FFP elected to undertake these evaluation studies. As such, this is my proudest accomplishment as the studies have continuously improved over the 5 year span and I would like to think that I have helped to shape and influence various modifications relating to how the studies have been conducted over the years. USAID/FFP now has a treasure-trove of 11 very substantial and rich datasets available in the public domain – ripe for future analytical work by researchers and policy analysts!