Covian Consulting CEO Signs Professional Book Deal with Worldwide Audience

ORLANDO, Fla. — The president of Covian Consulting, the Orlando firm which helps community based organizations and small businesses develop successful research, program evaluation, communications and staff development strategies, has signed a professional book deal.

Chances are you won’t find Culturally Competent Program Evaluation: How to Evaluate Hard-to-Reach Populations touted on the “New Releases” shelf at Barnes & Noble, but for thousands of not-for-profit community service organizations worldwide, the practitioner’s handbook will prove a key resource.

Author Maritza Concha, Ph.D., founder and president of Covian Consulting, said her book is the result of a lifetime of work helping to make community service organizations more accountable, more transparent, and more effective.

Dr. Concha’s publisher, CharityChannel Press, is the publishing arm of CharityChannel, the oldest and largest online community of nonprofit sector professionals in the world.

Dr. Concha’s book will be published as part of a series CharityChannel Press dubbed “In the Trenches,” which focus on topics from fundraising to legal and accounting principles to direct services.

“’In the Trenches’ is a series of easy-to-understand books for the nonprofit sector practitioner,” Dr. Concha explained. “Those are exactly the people I have been working for, people who are metaphorically “in the trenches” every day, striving to be effective in their communities.”

Culturally Competent Program Evaluation: How to Evaluate Hard-to-Reach Populations is a summary of one of Covian Consulting’s most sought-after program suites, Dr. Concha said.

“Effectiveness is the Holy Grail for most community service professionals,” Dr. Concha said. “The work is demanding, and they are supremely dedicated. They need resources that will help them serve their populations more effectively, and that’s also the goal of the ‘In the Trenches’ series,” Dr. Concha said.

Covian Consulting clients have ranged from the Florida Department of Children and Families to the International Rescue Committee, the Collins Center for Public Policy, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Covian is a client of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program in the Central Florida Research Park in East Orange County.

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For more information contact

Maritza Concha Ph.D, Principal, Covian Consulting, 305-586-9588 maritza@covianconsulting.com
Carol Ann Dykes, Site Manager, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-207-7426 carolann.dykes@ucf.edu
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications Inc. 407-644-4142 Lvershelco@aol.com

About the UCF Business Incubation Program:
The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth / impact enterprises.   Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped hundreds of local startup companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.

With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia Counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs.  Participating companies sustain more than 3,600 local jobs and have had a total impact of $1.51B on regional sales and $2.48B on regional economic output.  During the last fiscal year, the program has returned $7.95 for every $1.00 invested in the program.   For more information, visit www.incubator.ucf.edu