Cristiana Martin
Evaluation and Research Consultant
Your will to contribute to social change is my inspiration and motivation.
I get inspired by the work of the organizations I partner with — and I've dedicated over 10 years and 50+ projects to helping them understand it better, strengthen it, and communicate what it achieves.
I'm a sociologist, a qualitative researcher and an evaluator who believes in the richness of the process itself, not only of the great-to-use and easy-to-read final reports.
What guides my work
Equity means designing research and evaluation that disaggregates findings across populations, ensuring the voices most affected by a program help define what success looks like, and resisting the aggregate result that so often hides who's being left behind.
Empathy is what allows me to read an organization's institutional moment — its history, its tensions, its capacity — and understand the context in which a program was developed before drawing any conclusions about what it achieved.
Creativity is what lets me find what's measurable when the conditions aren't ideal — which, in practice, is almost always.
These three don't operate separately.
Firm delicacy is what holds them together: the commitment to being honest about what the data shows, while remaining fair to the effort and context behind the work.
And underlying all of it is a strategic lens — because good research and evaluation don't end with findings. They end with organizations that know what to do next, and why.
I've worked (almost) everywhere...
and in (almost) every industry!
I’ve worked on projects for municipalities as tiny as Peritoró in Brazil with 20K habitants and for much bigger clients such as the US State Department. From local philanthropic organizations to The Audacious Project.
I’ve worked on projects based in 16 of the 27 Brazilian federal units and in multiple countries around the world as The Philippines, Sierra Leone, Middle East and Latin American countries.
Also, diving into different fields of knowledge is my jam! I love to learn and keep learning. I have worked on evaluations related to education, health, environment, food systems, freedom of speech, technology, and so many other topics.
Oral Presentations & Events
Beyond arrivals and departures: uses of São Paulo's Sé Station in downtown São Paulo
Oral presentation for the University of the Metro - UNIMETRO in 2023.
The past, present and possible of a metro station in downtown São Paulo
Oral presentation at the T2M Conference in Paris, France in 2019.
Zika Outbreak in Brazil: Understanding Perceptions to Increase the Effectiveness of Preventive Actions
Oral presentation at the 13th Biannual Conference of the European Evaluation Society in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2018.
Simplifying the measurement of complex concepts
Oral presentation at the Brazilian Monitoring and Evaluation Network - RBMA in 2015.
Apresentação oral no VII Seminário da Rede Brasileira de Monitoramento e Avaliação (RBMA) em Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (2015).
Presença no Congresso Anual da American Evaluation Association (AEA) em Portland, Oregon, Estados Unidos (2024).
Published work
Some of the research and evaluation reports I've conducted are publicly available — offering a direct look at how I work, from research design to findings and recommendations. Most are in Portuguese.
2015 — Municipal Diagnosis: Child Labor in Nova Friburgo (RJ, Brazil)
2016 — Social Diagnosis: Situation of Children and Adolescents in Lençóis Paulista (SP, Brazil)
2017 — Social and Economic Impacts of Rede CUCA in Fortaleza (CE, Brazil)
2021 — Studies and Evidence on the Potential and Limitations of Digital Children's Books (Itaú Social/LabEdu)
2022 — Evaluation of the Internet Freedom Portfolio Activities (DevTech/US State Department)
2023 — MapBiomas External Evaluation and Impact Assessment (Olab/MapBiomas)
2024 — Final Evaluation of the UNICEF Project "Good Nutrition for a Healthy Life of Brazilian Children" (2020–2023)
2024 — Youth Out of School Without Completing Basic Education (Fundação Roberto Marinho)
2024 — UNICEF Sierra Leone Country Program Evaluation Report (2020–2024)
2025 — Experience Systematization of the Locomover Workshop (Casa da Criança Paralítica/FEAC)
In conversation
Beyond the written word, I've had the opportunity to discuss evaluation, research, and social change in podcasts and panel conversations. Most are in Portuguese — YouTube's automatic translation makes them accessible across languages.
Sociologists: who are they and what do they do?
Round table organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences at PUC-SP on job opportunities for sociologists.
I spoke about professional opportunities in the private sector.
May 09, 2017.
TV PUC | The Sociologist Profession
Joint interview with Professor Dr. Maura Véras to talk to TV PUC's Desafio Profissão (Professional Challenges) program about the professional opportunities for sociologists.
May 27, 2019.
Podcast Momento Cidade
I was invited to share the main aspects of my Master's degree dissertation about uses of the spaces of a subway station in downtown São Paulo.
April 30, 2021.
No-niche evaluator? No problem!
I was invited to share the main aspects of my American Evaluation Association Conference presentation in 2025 in Kansas City, MO.
March 3rd, 2026.
Work Experience
I have a master's degree in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP), and I graduated in Social Sciences from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). I also studied Urban Sociology at the Université Paris Nanterre (Paris X) for a full semester.
My work experience started in socio-environmental studies, developing environmental impact statements (EIS), and I quickly entered the Monitoring and Evaluation world. Since then, I have conducted evaluation and research for several organizations in the private and public sectors.
2020 - Present
2018 - 2024
Independent Evaluation and Research Consultant
Evaluation and research consultant involved in coordination, design, data collection, report writing and presentation. I have partnered with international evaluation consultancies (Plan Eval, Lotus M&E Group), research companies in Brazil (Datafolha, Ideafix) and some of the most influential NGOs in Brazil and abroad (Lab Edu, The Audacious Project).
Research Lead and Co-facilitator at Olab
Qualitative research consultant and facilitator offering actionable insights from desk research for networks, forums, alliances, and roundtables that seek to co-create solutions for complex social and environmental challenges. Designed and co-facilitated processes to create a shared vision and develop roadmaps to address global food systems, agriculture, and conservation issues. I've participated in Tropical Forest Alliance’s Dialogues ahead of COP26, the Soft Commodities Forum, the Forest Positive Coalition Initiative at the Consumer Goods Forum, the Cerrado Working Group among other projects with various clients such as WWF, IIS, GIZ and MapBiomas.
2014 - 2018
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) researcher and coordinator at Plan Eval
I've participated in evaluation and research projects in diverse public policy fields, including education, public health, and childhood and youth development. I have managed and conducted over twenty evaluations and social research projects for governments, civil society organizations, private companies, and international organizations such as UNICEF. The main activities comprised research design, field researcher coordination, qualitative and quantitative data collection (in-depth interviews, focus group moderation, observation, and surveys), data analysis, report writing, and presentation.