Based in College Park, Maryland, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, offers comprehensive, nonpartisan research on many of today’s most pressings issues. Weeding out rhetoric and agenda, the firm specializes in determining factual statistics that enable government, business, and nonprofit leaders to make decisions about direction, programs, and need. In fact, Optimal Solutions Group incorporates many of the methodologies and considerations espoused in the IBM Institute for Business Value model known as the perpetual collaboration mandate. Focused on the drivers that impel an organization to follow a particular path, Optimal Solutions Group contemplates elements like societal expectations, demographics, economics, revenue, and the cost of service delivery, all of which come into play when groups create overall plans of action. Optimal provides clients with clarity, documentation, data, and, where appropriate, recommendations for one or more mechanisms to resolve a problem or promote the best possible outcome. An expert in the areas of education, health care, and housing, Optimal Solutions Group also concentrates on issues such as transportation, workforce and economic development, and social policy. The firm tackles many concerns that have broad-reaching impact on many levels. For instance, Matea Pender, a Ph.D. candidate who serves as a Research Associate at Optimal, recently co-authored a paper that investigated the results of a Texas plan to offer in-state college tuition rates to nonresidents. The program spurred interest from many sectors of government and business because of its potential cost. The measure also garnered attention based on the possibility that access to lower-cost college education might produce a more knowledgeable workforce whose earning potential would reduce reliance on social services. Optimal examines matters that greatly affect not only the existing structure of states, and ultimately the nation, but also those that will shape their future. Founded in 2000 by Dr. Mark Turner, who serves as the firm’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Optimal maintains up-to-the-minute knowledge in its areas of expertise. The company also benefits from the management and technological capabilities of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tracye Turner. With more than 60 employees, Optimal delivers proven value with best practices in both widely accepted and proprietary research and analytic systems.