Team

Saad Chahine PhD, is the founder and director of Metrein. He specializes in psychometrics, monitoring & evaluation, learning, assessment, quantitative, and qualitative research methods. Saad, has extensive experience in the design, implementation and evaluation in educational (K-12) and health professions settings. He has worked with local and international government and non-profit organizations including: The Agha Khan Foundation, Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago, Government of Belize, the College Board, Ontario Ministry of Health, Ontario Ministry of Education, and Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Saad is also an active member and participant of professional networks and academic organizations and has designed and delivered a number of workshops on instrument design, research methods and evaluation.

Cassandra Barber MA, PhD(c), Education, Evaluator and Research Consultant is a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She specializes in program evaluation, demography, quantitative and qualitative research methods and spatial modeling. Cassandra also has extensive experience in psychometrics, survey design and the development of assessment tools. She completed her masters level training in Sociology, specializing in migration and ethnic relations at Western University, Canada. Cassandra has worked in various academic and applied educational (K-12), health professions and national regulatory professional settings as program evaluator, research associate and independent consultant.

Kandi-Lee A. Crooks-Smith (MAEd), Educator and Consultant, holds a Diploma in Primary Education from The Mico Teacher’s College in Kingston, Jamaica and both B.Ed. (hons) and MAEd (hons) degrees from Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a trained and certified USAID/ New Horizons for Primary Schools Project Resource Teacher in Numeracy, Literacy Technology, and Gender Sensitization. Kandi-Lee’s formal teaching career commenced in 1998 as a classroom teacher. She was appointed Principal (2008), a post she held for over 10 years. She has also held positions as Consultant and Trainer (2016 to present), Learning Program Assistant (2018) and Virtual Learning Trainer and Coach (Present). She is coauthor of a journal publication in the Ministry of Education Journal of Best Practices in Teaching & Learning, and Regional Reviewer for Employment and Social Development Canada’s annual Volunteer Awards Program.

Rachel Plouffe, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Associate at Western University and the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre, and Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Western University. Rachel completed her Master of Science and PhD degrees at Western University in the Personality and Measurement Psychology program. Her research interests include the development and validation of psychological assessment tools. Rachel has extensive expertise in test construction, psychometrics, and advanced quantitative statistical procedures, including structural equation modelling, item response theory, multilevel modelling, and latent profile analysis.