History
TRX Development Solutions, LLC is a Brooklyn-based consultancy that provides a range of services for community organizations, including: program evaluation, Electronic Health Record (EHR) management and implementation, needs assessment, strategic planning, and grant writing (both government and private). Our clients provide services in community health and primary care, HIV/AIDS care, behavioral health (mental health and substance use), homeless services, legal access, violence prevention, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and social services.
We have experience providing program evaluation services for both large federal grant-funded projects from agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, as well as smaller projects funded by private foundation grants, state and local governments, and other sources.
TRX is dedicated to providing academic-quality program evaluation and community research, and because we are independent, we are able to align our work precisely with our clients’ needs and forward planning. Our mission and work ethic is one of collaboration and partnership; our clients are organizations whose work we believe in and deeply wish to see succeed. In this we are guided by one central principle: that all we do to support our clients will ultimately result in better lives and enhanced dignity for the people they serve.
We believe that change in our world happens one idea, one life, one program, one organization, and one community at a time. In this sense, our work ethic and mission are the foundation of a theory of change, but this is only the start of the process. Program evaluation and community-based research creates change by bringing to light the value and wisdom of experiential knowledge created in communities every day by the organizations we serve and the clients that they serve. Technical expertise cannot solve problems without an appreciation of the landscape, norms, struggles, and accomplishments of ordinary people. Going one step further, we strive to ensure that our work adds up. We develop synergies across our clients and the work of other organizations, so that our work lives on beyond the individual projects. We bring our work to conferences, meetings, and government agencies, and we publish our work in grey literature, peer-reviewed journals, and collected volumes, so that anyone can take what they need from it.
Our staff and associated consultants work closely with clients using regular video conferencing, frequent communication with project directors, and scheduled site visits for hands-on work with our clients and their communities. TRX is led by John A. Guidry, PhD, who brings to this work over 10 years of experience in academic settings and 15 years of experience working in or consulting with community-based organizations. As an academic researcher, Dr. Guidry was trained in political science and spent several years doing research with social movements in Brazil, including neighborhood movements and the movement for the rights of children. In 2004, he transitioned into foundation-based public health research and community development, working on a national, multi-sited project funded by the Kellogg Foundation at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM). In 2009 Dr. Guidry began private consulting to community-based organizations and has consulted since then. From 2010-2013 he was Director of Community Health and Research at GMHC, where he was in charge of community-based social marketing campaigns, GMHC’s Youth Program, women’s health, and the annual Latex. In 2016, Dr. Guidry formed TRX Development Solutions, LLC to handle a growing volume of clients and multiyear contracts.
In the last five years, TRX has grown to six full time staff members and several consulting associates who contribute to the company’s ability to address client needs. From TRX’s Brooklyn headquarters, the company has served clients in all regions of Massachusetts, New York City and New York State, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. TRX’s relationship with LAPA Fundraising goes back to 2013, and we are very excited about the potential to collaborate together to realize the vision of both companies.
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TRX Stuffs
Founder and CEO
John A. Guidry, PhD
John A. Guidry, PhD, is the founder, President, and CEO of TRX Development Solutions. He has been active as a researcher, behavioral scientist, and program evaluator for over 25 years. With TRX, he specializes in strategic development, evaluation design, client relationship management, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols for TRX projects. Specific field specialties include: HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual and reproductive health; behavioral interventions; evaluation of behavioral health programs (mental health and substance use treatment); stigma and stigma-reduction interventions; youth advocacy and programming; elder justice; LGBTQ+ advocacy and policy; and IRB management and research with vulnerable populations.
Prior to founding TRX in 2016, John worked as an independent grant writer, program evaluator, and community researcher in public health and advocacy in New York City and nationally. At Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) from 2011 through 2013, he was Director of the Community Health and Research Department, for which he responsible for directing GMHC’s youth program (Club 1319) for Black and Brown gay, bisexual, and transgender youth; developing and implementing GMHC’s grassroots social marketing campaigns; and contributing to community-based participatory research partnerships with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the City College of New York, and the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
From 2004-2008, John managed “Pathways to Collaboration,” a multi-sited learning community that documented practices of community engagement with local partnerships around the United States. The project was funded by the Kellogg Foundation through the New York Academy of Medicine. The findings were published as Engaging the Community in Participation, by Roz Lasker and John A. Guidry (McFarland, 2009).
From 1996-2004 he was a professor of political science with Augustana College in Rock Island and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a scholar and researcher, John’s work concentrated on social movements, urban politics, the rights of children, and democratization in Brazil and the developing world and resulted in several peer-reviewed publications in the field.
John received the doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan in 1996, MA in Latin American Studies from Tulane University (1988), and BA in political science from Loyola University of New Orleans (1986).
ASSISTANT Director
Erin Hou, MPH
Erin Hou, MPH, is the Assistant Director at TRX Development Solutions. She is experienced in program and grant management, monitoring and evaluation, research, grant writing, and international health and development.
Erin provides oversight of TRX administrative management, including finance and billing functions, human resources and strategic management. She also manages several evaluation projects at TRX, working with clients specializing in mental and behavioral health, youth services, LGBTQ+ services, domestic violence prevention, HIV/AIDS services, and other supportive social services. Most recently, Erin has collaborated with New York State Department of Health and the New York City LGBT Community Center to implement the 2021 LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Community Survey for New York State, which will inform LGBTQ+ policy, funding and advocacy across the state for the next 5 years.
Prior to joining TRX, Erin worked in corporate philanthropy and legal services for the Esteé Lauder Companies. She also worked as a project consultant and grant writer with United Nations Volunteers to develop a project to connect HIV-positive mothers and their children with sustainable economic opportunities and healthcare in Pallisa, Uganda. Previously, Erin worked at the FHI360 and USAID-funded MPlus Project in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she played a lead role in coordinating a research study examining the effectiveness of mobile phone communications in relaying HIV prevention messages among men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers and refugees. While in the Philippines, she developed the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for a mobile health clinic providing sexual and reproductive health services to women living in remote areas of Manila. Erin has also previously worked as a Research Assistant at the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University Medical Center.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Advertising from Syracuse University (NY, USA) and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).
DIRECTOR of EVALUATION
Alexa Kreisberg, MPH
Alexa Kreisberg, MPH, is the Director of Evaluation. She has more than seven years of experience in monitoring & evaluation, research, implementation & management of electronic health records, and international health & development.
She brings extensive subject matter expertise in the implementation and management of electronic health records for large community-based organizations to TRX. She has previously managed electronic health records for a large CBO, which included the management of about 100,000 current and previous patient records.
Before joining TRX, Alexa was the Senior Director of Analytics & Evaluation at GMHC, a large community-based organization in New York City, where she managed the agency's monitoring & evaluation and quality improvement for nearly 70 different programs, departments, and foundation, city, state, and federal contracts totaling over $32 million. While with GMHC, she spearheaded data management and electronic health record implementation to ensure compliant and accurate reporting of program data to funders such as the CDC, NYC-DOHMH, NYS-DOH, HUD, SAMHSA, DHHS, and DOJ.
Previously, Alexa worked for the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia and the United Nations Population Fund. While in Zambia, she developed a health education curriculum for pediatric HIV patients, which is used throughout the country, and led a program evaluation within Lusaka District to increase program effectiveness. While working with the United Nations Population Fund, Alexa provided technical assistance to regional and country offices to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights programming and advocacy. During her time with UNFPA, Alexa developed guidance on remote monitoring in hard-to-reach areas, specifically conflict settings. The white paper was used as the basis for a funded remote monitoring program in Syria and Iraq. The guidance Alexa created is still in use by UNFPA.
Alexa earned her Master of Public Health from New York University in Community and International Health and her bachelor's degree from the University of Denver.
Assistant Manager for Data Analytics
Sarah E. Trench, MPA
Sarah E. Trench, MPA, has worked at TRX Development Solutions since 2019. She has a background of working with nonprofits in housing and homelessness, community development, education, and legal issues.
Prior to joining TRX, Sarah worked with affordable housing development in the LISC AmeriCorps program at the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire in western Massachusetts, where she assisted with grant and state funding applications, and expanded community engagement through coordinating financial literacy workshops, building a new website, and writing newsletters and social media posts.
Earlier, Sarah worked at Journey Home in Connecticut as part of the AmeriCorps VISTA program, where she managed a regional housing application database. During her time at Journey Home, the Greater Hartford region transitioned into a coordinated exit process from housing and homelessness, and Sarah assisted with this process and modified the application as needed.
Sarah’s other experience includes data entry, survey distribution, qualitative interview coding, statistical analysis of healthcare data, and report writing, for various nonprofits and research projects.
Sarah earned her Master of Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy, with a public policy analysis specialization, from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and her bachelor's degree in Sociology from New York University’s College of Arts and Science.