About Us
Educational Outfitters is an independent grant evaluation firm that specializes in educational and community improvement projects across the United States. After having worked together for several years, the partners of Todd Braeger, Shanna Futral, and Jenna Taylor established the firm in 2004. Our partnership is founded upon the principles of integrity, dependability, and excellence.
Todd Braeger, M.S.
Since 1989, Todd Braeger has worked as a professional evaluator on over 100 education-based projects totaling more $100 million, including teacher training, family and child development, after-school, technology, literacy, math and science education, history and civics education, physical education, college preparation, adult education, violence and substance use prevention and intervention, youth mentoring, comprehensive school safety, emergency planning and response, and community-wide service coordination projects. He is an expert in project evaluation (including needs assessment, instrumentation, quality control, data management, and data analysis) and project management (including formative and summative reporting, Continuous Improvement Management, strategic planning, sustainability, and funder protocols). Todd started his evaluation career on staff at Utah State University and has since worked extensively with diverse, low-income, rural and urban communities in the South and West. He is also a published researcher in the areas of early childhood education, language development, and special education early intervention. Todd served as lead developer of DataTrack, an online, integrated data tracking, management, analysis, and reporting computer system. As Educational Outfitter’s Senior Evaluator, he is responsible for administering evaluation, project management, and technical support services for educational and community projects across the United States. Todd is highly adept at translating funder requirements into a strong, comprehensive evaluation framework that emphasizes ongoing assessment, improvement, and accountability of the project in all areas. To this end, he is accomplished at evaluation workplan development and implementation; instrument design and testing; data gathering, processing and clean-up; data review, analysis and interpretation; and report writing, submission, and follow-up. Todd holds two Master’s degrees, one in Family and Human Development and the other in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is currently a doctoral candidate (abd) in Psychology – Research and Evaluation Methodology at Utah State University, where he was the recipient of the Presidential Fellowship and the Evaluation Training Program Fellowship.
Shanna Futral, M.Ed.
For over a decade now, Shanna Futral has dedicated her professional life to education. She started her career as a teacher but quickly moved out of the classroom and into the world of grant-funded programs – both as a project director and an external consultant. In this capacity, she has collaborated with countless local, state, and national partners to help secure over $64 million in grants for education and community improvement projects nationwide. She is an expert at designing cohesive programs and adept at involving diverse, inclusive representation of stakeholders in decision-making, project design, and implementation. She is also skilled at developing quantitative and qualitative assessment measures for project instructors, classroom teachers, and K-12 students. Shanna is able to couple her understanding of and experience in best practice instructional methods, standards-based curriculum and assessment development, and professional development models with effective and successful project management skills. She has directed two USDOE grant-funded projects, including an after-school and summer program in a highly impacted, inner city area; and a teacher professional development project for a large suburban school district. She is also a talented instructor and has presented on topics including evaluating change, grant writing, and teaching with essential questions and enduring understanding. Furthermore, Shanna is highly regarded for her expertise in history education and innovation in related assessment design. Currently, she is creating and testing new instruments to assess historical thinking skills, civic engagement, and the level of implemented change specific to Teaching American History grant projects. Shanna is the Congressional District Coordinator for the We the People youth initiative and recently served as Utah’s state education director for the Japanese American National Museum’s “Enduring Communities Project”, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Shanna holds a Master’s of Education degree from Weber State University, Utah. She also has a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with a Social Studies emphasis from Kennesaw State University, Georgia, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and was her program’s Outstanding Senior of the Year.
Jenna Taylor, M.S.S.
Jenna Taylor has fifteen years of experience working with and for education-based organizations, including school districts, universities, state offices, community non-profits, and tribal entities across the nation. Early in her career, she worked with adult training programs as a coordinator for her graduate program’s Management Institute and as the manager for the U.S. Institute of Languages. Since 2001 Jenna has worked as a professional education grant consultant, first as a senior grant writer for a private consulting firm and then for two university deans. In 2004 she co-founded Educational Outfitters and has since worked as part of a professional team responsible for carrying out independent evaluation and grant reporting services for education projects. She brings with her a strong background in strategic planning, program coordination, systems development, performance management, and facilitation and training methods. Jenna is known for being highly adept at form design and usability, data tracking and management, and information organization and presentation. She is also knowledgeable of various professional development models, prevention programming, and psychological theory. What’s more, Jenna has nine years of full-time experience in the development and writing of federal, state, and foundation grants. She has a successful track record of guiding diverse groups from the formative stages of project planning through proposal submission, including conducting needs analyses, formulating solutions based on best practices, and establishing appropriate goals and objectives, methods, management plans, timetables, budgets, and partners. As a result, she has helped clients secure $58 million in competitive grants for 67 projects nationwide at an extremely high funding rate. Jenna holds a Master’s of Social Science degree in Human Resource Management as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She graduated Magna Cum Laude; was honored on the National Dean’s List; and served two years in the presidency of her university’s Graduate Student Senate. Her ongoing professional training has included Community System’s grant development process (Bader and Carr); Innovation Configurations and Concerns Based Adoption Model (Hord); and “Most of Us” Social Norms Marketing (Linkenbach).