AEA365 Contributor, Curated by Elizabeth Grim

Hi, I’m Kim Norris, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director for American Institutes for Research (AIR)’s International Development Division. Part of my role is to lead a MEL practice. As part of our initial strategy, our practice team determined to focus on localizing our work. For us this means we seek out ways to increase local partnering and leadership in and around MEL efforts – from business development to MEL direction and execution. This involves local team leadership, capacity strengthening and engagement on local terms.

Hi. I am David Fetterman. I am the president of Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation firm. I am also the past-president of the American Evaluation Association and a co-chair of the Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment Evaluation TIG (with Liliana Rodríguez). I am the recipient of the Myrdal Award for Practice, the Lazarsfeld Award for Theory, and the Evaluation Advocacy and Use Award. I am also the founder of empowerment evaluation.

Hi! I am Gideon Eduah, a doctoral student from Tennessee Tech University, and I work with a group of interdisciplinary collaborators affiliated with the Center for Assessment & Improvement of Learning at Tennessee Tech and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Tallahassee Community College (TCC).

Together, we have facilitated ten professional development critical thinking workshops with three two-year and two four-year universities centered on assessment practices in higher education. Leveraging either the Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) or the American Association for Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Critical Thinking VALUE rubric, these workshops intended to help guide and support faculty as they navigate instructional pivots relating to student assessment and evaluation. These workshops have been in face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid settings, with faculty from multiple disciplines.

Hi there! My name is Kristen Quinlan. I’m a Senior Research Scientist at the Education Development Center (EDC). As part of this role, I support the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), which is a public-private partnership charged with supporting the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Suicide Prevention.

Hi! I’m Sheila B. Robinson, Ed.D. of Custom Professional Learning, LLC. I’m a speaker, educator, consultant, and yes, a program evaluator too!

In my first career as an educator, I dedicated years to co-teaching and coaching/mentoring teachers. I was intrigued by teachers who possessed a talent for engaging students. Was it their lively personalities, raw charisma, carefully crafted lesson plans, or the particular activities the students were doing that made the difference? I began observing closely and taking notes. As I transitioned from the classroom to the conference room creating and facilitating professional development courses for teachers and school leaders, the answer became clear: it’s all of the above!

Hi, I’m Kim Norris, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director for American Institutes for Research (AIR)’s International Development Division. Part of my role is to lead a MEL practice. As part of our initial strategy, our practice team determined to focus on localizing our work. For us this means we seek out ways to increase local partnering and leadership in and around MEL efforts – from business development to MEL direction and execution. This involves local team leadership, capacity strengthening and engagement on local terms.

Hi, I’m Kim Norris, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director for American Institutes for Research (AIR)’s International Development Division. Part of my role is to lead a MEL practice. As part of our initial strategy, our practice team determined to focus on localizing our work. For us this means we seek out ways to increase local partnering and leadership in and around MEL efforts – from business development to MEL direction and execution. This involves local team leadership, capacity strengthening and engagement on local terms.

Hi, I’m Kim Norris, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Director for American Institutes for Research (AIR)’s International Development Division. Part of my role is to lead a MEL practice. As part of our initial strategy, our practice team determined to focus on localizing our work. For us this means we seek out ways to increase local partnering and leadership in and around MEL efforts – from business development to MEL direction and execution. This involves local team leadership, capacity strengthening and engagement on local terms.

Our team is keenly aware that stories are best told by those who have lived them, and that we are at risk of losing the evaluation story without significant local engagement. We have learned how using the Most Significant Change method (MSC) can more actively involve local participants in identifying, analyzing and interpreting significant changes since program inception, and can help to uncover hidden and emergent aspects of an intervention’s relevance and effectiveness.

Hello! We are Isaac D. Castillo and Colleen Coyne, and we represent the Learning and Evaluation team at KABOOM!. And we have a question for you: What do playgrounds, data, systemic racism, maps, and evaluation all have in common? Playgrounds should serve as a sanctuary for children – an escape from everyday pressures where they can just be kids. But not every child in the United States has access to a safe and high-quality playground. At KABOOM!, we refer to these disparities in access and quality as playspace inequity. KABOOM! builds playgrounds in partnership with others across the United States to end playspace inequity, so more kids can grow up happy and healthy. But how do we measure playspace inequity? That is where data, maps, storytelling, and evaluation come in.