Dana Mandolesi

Dana Mandolesi holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of New Orleans and specializes in research design. She is an expert in qualitative research methods and designed and managed HEY's 2-year Emancipation Research Project (ERP). Her expertise is evaluating multi-organizational community systems. She has researched social systems in professional and academic settings varying from youth sub-culture and drug policy in New Orleans, urban non-profit functionality in Costa Rica, voluntary and faith based agencies active in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and the interaction between San Francisco's Child Welfare System and transitional age youth serving non-profits. Out of this work she has written many reports and toolkits, such as a guide promoting best practices and communication strategies between agencies active in disaster, multiple statistics sheets, and articles and reports. At HEY, Mandolesi manages all foster care and community research, and acts as the 'info-hub' for anyone needing data, statistics or information about HEY's focus areas. Mandolesi creates, designs and markets HEY materials, such as the HEY Statistics Sheets, the HEY Housing Guide and other Trends. She also dabbles in online fundraising, internet marketing and social media for non-profits and built the beautiful new HEY website.