Our Team

Our Team

The MayaTech team includes seasoned professionals with academic training, professional certification, and practical work experience in their respective fields. We maintain a resident staff capability that provides continuity and stability to our long-term projects.

 

Management Team

 

Jean-Marie Mayas, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Jean-Marie Mayas founded MayaTech in 1985 and until 2015, served as President. He led the company’s growth as a robust applied social science firm with a focus on the Federal sector. He currently directs corporate strategy and development in his role as CEO.

Valerie R. Spencer, MBA
President and Chief Operating Officer

Valerie Spencer is MayaTech’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Since joining the company over 20 years ago, Ms. Spencer has supported organizational growth and development in developing data-informed strategic pathways for service and product offerings.

Suzanne Randolph Cunningham,
PhD, Chief Science Officer

Suzanne Randolph is MayaTech’s Chief Science Officer, serves as MayaTech’s Director of Continuing Education, and has over 35 years of methodological expertise in survey, experimental, and evaluation research designs applied to the study of social and human services, and public health programs and policies.

Alison Mayas
Executive Vice President

Alison Mayas is MayaTech's Executive Vice President and has been with the company for over 28 years. With nearly 40 years of experience in communications development and management, conference and meeting logistics management, corporate strategy, and multi-sector business development, she has directed and currently supports MayaTech's Health Information and Communications Division.

Deborah Parham Hopson, PhD, MSPH, RN, Sr. Health Scientist

Dr. Parham Hopson previously served as a Rear Admiral in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and Sr. Health Advisor to the HRSA Administrator providing expertise on national and global health issues. She provides guidance to MayaTech’s portfolio of projects on infectious chronic disease prevention and treatment, family planning, workforce development, and public health legislation and policy.

 

Rose Tyler, MScM, ASCM
Contracts Administrator

Rose Tyler is a Contracts Manager and Administrator with more than nine years of experience including: client engagement, cost analyses, federal regulations, contract compliance, risk management, contract vehicle and schedule management, subcontractor management and budgetary and programmatic issue resolution.

 

 

 

Shelly Kowalczyk, MSPH, CHES

Shelly Kowalczyk is Senior Technical Vice President and Manager of MayaTech’s Center for Community Prevention and Treatment Research (CPTR) and has over 14 years of experience in applied social sciences research, technical assistance and training, and the design and implementation of evaluations of  programs, policies and systems. She is an alumni of the University of Kentucky and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).

Jhilya Mayas, PhD

Jhilya F. Mayas is Technical Vice President and Manager of MayaTech’s Center for Public Health Engagement (CPHE). She has over 8 years of experience in strategic planning and communications spanning an array of disease and public health areas, biomedical research, and emerging technologies. Jhilya earned degrees from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and New York University School of Medicine.

Ashlei N. Stevens

Ashlei Stevens is Vice President of MayaTech’s Center for Strategic Communications and Engagement (CSCE). She manages internal and external communications for the company, as well as strategic communications and media relations support for federal clients and historically black colleges. She has nearly 20 years of experience in media, including news reporting and executive communications for UNCF and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Diane Abbate, MA

Diane Abbate is a Senior Associate, serving as MayaTech’s business development analyst. She has more than 40 years’ experience working as a senior Federal manager in the DHHS, and is knowledgeable about key government operating functions, policy analysis, strategic planning, and grant related monitoring and technical assistance.