“Myra led a transformative collaborative effort to define impact and align our strategy to achieve it – work that’s now deeply embedded across the organization. Her clear vision and strategic nature were invaluable during a time of organizational change. The result: sharper focus and greater impact.”

Sarah Rosen Wartell — President, Urban Institute

Amplify Your Impact.

Research institutions and rigorous public policy analysis have helped make our lives better—from dramatically reducing lead exposure and teen pregnancy to expanding access to quality early care and education. At their best, researchers find ways to turn knowledge into action so people can be better off than before.

Today, that public value is under growing pressure. Trust in data and evidence is eroding. Rising higher education costs and declining access have fueled questions about whether universities remain a public good. And philanthropy is placing less emphasis on building evidence and data, particularly at non-academic research institutions.

Now, more than ever, research institutions must demonstrate their value and deepen their impact.

At Jones-Taylor Strategies, we help researchers, research teams, and research centers do just that. We help translate rigorous research into knowledge that policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and the public can use—getting your work into the hands of the people who can do the most with it.

We also understand the pressures researchers face. Austerity in higher education, competition for philanthropic funding, and growing demands to demonstrate impact can leave researchers overwhelmed and discouraged. And the perceived tension between rigor and impact can make the path forward feel unclear.

We help researchers navigate that tension, because rigor and impact aren't competing priorities. They can—and should—reinforce one another.

Let’s work together to strengthen the connection between research, action, and public value—and rebuild confidence that research still matters.

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Impact Development | Our Approach

  • Assess.

    First, we learn about you, how you currently think about impact, and the successes and challenges your research has had in having impact. We do this to get a better sense of your readiness to center impact in your work.

  • Define.

    What does impact mean to you and your colleagues? We help you define what impact means in your context so you know how to achieve it.

  • Plan.

    We recognize that researchers never start with an answer in mind, but rather a well considered question. We work with you to incorporate impact into how you develop your questions. And we help you identify key indicators and intermediate outcomes so you can gauge your progress toward impact. We do this without compromising the rigor of your research all while increasing the likelihood that it will reach and inform the people who can do the most with it.

  • Engage.

    Researchers play a critical role in having social impact, but you are not the only players. We help you understand the unique role you play in your impact ecosystem. Then we support you to identify those other parts of the ecosystem that will be most effective in working toward improving people’s lives. And most important, we equip you with skills and tools to engage meaningfully with them over time.

Our Services

  1. Schedule a call,

  2. Identify your goals,

  3. Amplify your impact.

  • Cohort training for individual researchers who want to learn how to make their work more impactful.

    Researchers are asked to have more impact, but are not given the tools to succeed. We bring individual researchers together for cohort-based learning to develop the skills and confidence it takes to produce impactful research.

    We help researchers:

    • Create a theory of impact

    • Map your impact ecosystem

    • Build competence in engaging other parts of your impact ecosystem effectively

    • Track your progress on the road to impact

    Options:

    • Four half-day virtual sessions. Individual researchers join a cohort of researchers. Spread across four months.

    • Four half-day in-person or virtual sessions. A host group forms the cohort. Spread across four months.

    More one-on-one support outside of the cohort also available.

  • Coaching for research team/practice area leaders plus cohort impact training.

    Amplifying your team’s impact won’t happen overnight nor on its own. Leaders need additional support to guide your teams toward impact.

    We help research team leaders:

    • Learn how to support their researchers to increase their impact

    • Build coherence across your research team/practice area

    • Sustain focus through resistance to change

    • Assess progress toward impact

    Package includes:

    • Cohort Impact Training

    • Planning call

    • Five one-on-one coaching sessions

    • Follow-up call 4-6 weeks after final impact training session

  • Support for transforming a research institution (or self-contained research center) to center impact in their research.

    Shifting from doing research for research's sake to research for impact requires more than technical skill. Cultural and structural shifts must also occur if the transformation is to succeed. Researchers need to to be assured that the culture of the organization, along with its incentives and performance management structures match the move toward impact.

    While providing researchers with technical skills, we also help leadership teams:

    • Identify the structural changes that need to be in place to reflect the focus on impact

    • Align culture, values, and behaviors to shift toward impact

    • Build trust, accountability, and connection

    • Connect everyday actions to long-term goals

    Package includes:

    • Cohort Impact Train-the-Trainer Trainings

    • Cohort and 1:1 coaching for research team/practice area leads

    • Structural and systems assessment

    • Recommendations for systems changes needed to align with shift toward impact

    • Change management support for senior leadership

    Number and frequency of engagements dependent on size and scope.

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About Myra | Impact

After receiving a Ph.D. from Yale University, Myra Jones-Taylor opted for a career in public policy. While she has not devoted her career to research, she has always relied on evidence to inform her work.

Jones-Taylor Strategies’ approach is informed by Myra’s years of experience as a qualitative researcher, policy maker, and senior non-profit leader at both a national policy and advocacy organization, Zero to Three, and a national research institute, Urban Institute. She brings two decades of experience educating legislative and executive branches at all levels of government throughout the country; shaping the media’s understanding of public policy with on- and off-the-record interviews with major print publications, and live on-air radio, local television, and major cable news interviews; and building coalitions among community stakeholders and advocates.

Most recently, as SVP of policy impact and external affairs, Myra led Urban Institute’s successful effort to shift its 300+ researchers to center impact in their work, all while retaining the highest standards of research. And now, we bring her passion for this work to research institutions across the country.