Dontarious “Dontae” Cowans, M.A., Analyst, is a mixed methods researcher with a focus on survey methodology. He is passionate about matters concerning youth leadership and engagement, community development, urban planning, and organizational effectiveness. He is eager to make sure people, especially those whose voices are typically not heard or dismissed, are part of solutions designed to address their concerns and to improve the conditions in which they learn, work, and live. Related to this, he is keen to help build the competencies of organizations—small and large—to be able to practice authentic community engagement and use data to inform their work.
Dontae is proficient in qualitative and quantitative methods and the use of software programs to support data analysis, including ATLAS.Ti, STATA, and SPSS. At Community Science, he contributes to many evaluations and research studies, including several funded by foundations to understand the challenges facing youth from economically disadvantaged communities, assess the impact of leadership development programs to enhance the skills of nonprofit leaders working in the social sector, and inform a regional community engagement strategy. For projects such as these, he helps to program survey questionnaires in Qualtrics (an online survey tool), administer the surveys, manage responses, prepare the data for analysis, and analyze the data. He also helps with qualitative data collection and analysis activities, sometimes as an interviewer and sometimes as a note-taker. As a member of Community Science’s survey team, he provides consultation to project directors and other analysts on the organization’s standards for survey design and administration.
Dontae holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Memphis. He lives in the Washington DC metropolitan area and outside of work, Dontae loves film and cinematography, photography, and sports, as well as spending time with family and friends, traveling, hiking, and exercising.