Denise Roosendaal on Becoming AEA’s New Executive Director

Hello! I am Denise Roosendaal, AEA’s new Executive Director.

I am thrilled to have been selected to lead the management team for American Evaluation Assocation. I appreciate the significant tenure of AEA Executive Director Emeritus  Susan Kistler, and look forward to her continued involvement in the organization in her new role. The AEA has a long history of impressive accomplishments and achievements, and in creating value for its passionate members through programs and services. The potential for continued success is equally significant.

In looking toward the future, I am most compelled by the organization’s strongly held values and how those values will impact the strategy your Board of Directors will create for the next few years. This strategy will certainly be driven by the overarching mission, the landscape of the evaluation profession and practice, and the global impact evaluation can have on society.

At the top of my 90 day plan will be a concerted endeavor to get to know you – the members.  What are your concerns? What are your observations of the ever-evolving profession of evaluation? In what aspects of evaluation are you most interested? Where do you see yourself and the organization in five years? If it sounds as if I’m interviewing you, I might be! I would welcome the opportunity to hear from you directly so that I can better understand what the membership needs from its organization.

I have been in association management my entire career. While I enjoy so many aspects of this field, I am most passionate about the creation of community within an organization.  AEA has truly mastered this quality.  The level of commitment of the members and the leadership is impressive. With the TIGs, Affiliates, AEA365, e-learning, Evaluation 2013, there are so many ways you can engage in the organization in a manner that is friendly and intimate and thought-provoking.

Get involved: Please drop me an email with any of your thoughts to these questions or other topics you wish you to address.  I look forward to meeting you in Washington DC in October! Even if you are not able to join us at the conference, I hope to meet you in the coming year.

Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the  aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.