Dr Raúl Chávez

About

Raúl helps clients understand not just whether something worked, but why, and for whom.

He’s a bilingual behavioural scientist and mixed-methods evaluator, and the founder of Throughline Research & Strategy. His work has spanned 25 US states and more than a dozen countries, with governments, foundations, universities and NGOs.

On our projects he leads qualitative research and brings a behavioural lens to evaluation. He runs interviews, focus groups and longitudinal case studies, builds Theory of Change models, and combines qualitative depth with survey and statistical analysis to get at the mechanisms behind outcomes. His work covers employment and economic inactivity, youth, workforce development, financial inclusion and poverty.

His specialism is research with people public systems often struggle to reach, including young people experiencing homelessness, low-income and minoritised communities, and immigrant and Spanish-speaking residents.

He helped co-design the first US direct cash transfer programme for young people experiencing homelessness, shaping both the intervention and its evaluation. Before his doctorate he was a US national security analyst, briefing senior government decision-makers.

He often sharpens the thinking behind a project, not just the evidence that comes out of it.

EXPERTISE: Behavioural science · Mixed-methods evaluation · Qualitative and longitudinal research · Theory of Change · Culturally responsive research

QUALIFICATIONS: PhD Social Sciences, UC Berkeley · MA Law and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University · BA International Relations and Spanish Literature, University of Southern California

LANGUAGES: English and Spanish