GovEval

Hi, we are Kiely Barnard-Webster and Sarah Constantine, Managing Consultants at Guidehouse who recently spoke with the Washington Evaluators Association about monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in civil–military (Civ–Mil) programming. Through our work supporting Civ-Mil evaluations, we’ve seen firsthand how Civ–Mil evaluations introduce an additional layer of complexity to common ethical concerns across evaluation in fragile environments. The presence of military actors, donor policy objectives, and potential politicization of civilian participation can amplify both ethical and methodological risks, making standard approaches insufficient. We’re sharing some considerations for those interested in improving their M&E practice in fragile contexts and working with militaries.

Hello! I’m Karla Ganley, a 5th year MD-PhD student specializing in medical anthropology. I’m the Executive Director of the University of Florida’s Homeless Outreach & Street Medicine Program. In this post, I challenge the notion that evaluation is neutral. I argue for greater use of qualitative methods to capture complexity and encourage reflexivity when conducting evaluations. To illustrate, I’ll share my experiences reporting homelessness data to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Hello, fellow evaluators! My name is Linda Kawentel, and I am the Associate Director and Evaluation Core Lead at the VA QUERI Center for Evaluation and Implementation Resources (CEIR). My work involves leading evaluations on issues relevant to VA health system priorities, creating resources to encourage the adoption of best practices in program evaluation to share with VA researchers and operational offices, and facilitating evaluation training sessions to help build evaluation capacity in the federal government.

Hi! I’m Deb Levy, and I am a member of the Washington Evaluators AEA affiliate. I’ve been working as an evaluator for over 20 years now and in this time, I worked for nonprofit organizations, the federal government as a civil servant, and in the contracting space where I now support state and federal agencies. One commonality among all these sectors in the program evaluation space that I’ve observed, is that measuring change among participants in a training, class, or workshop doesn’t have to be complicated. For years, I relied on traditional pre-test/post-test designs in evaluation because they were supposed to be one of the more rigorous types, but let’s be honest, they can be a headache. They take time, cost money, and often leave us wondering if the data truly reflects what participants learned. That’s why I started using the post-then-pre retrospective approach for trainings and workshops, and it’s been a game-changer.

Hi, I’m Meredith Stroble Helm, and I have worked as a supervising investigator at Inspectors General Offices in New York City and the District of Columbia, investigating fraud and corruption in City agencies. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of fostering collaboration across agencies and making policy and procedure recommendations in order to improve government efficiency and effectiveness. This perspective is highly relevant to evaluators because collaboration and cross-agency learning are integral components to building evidence, improving accountability, and ensuring that our work leads to meaningful change.

Hello, I’m Michael Hand, a Portfolio Lead and Behavioral Scientist with the Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). At OES, our staff of interdisciplinary evaluation experts works within GSA and collaborates with agency partners across the government – including the Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Treasury, and many others – to build and use evidence to tackle the most pressing problems in the United States. Conducting rigorous evaluations from within the federal government is a unique challenge and exciting opportunity to improve the lives of Americans. We’ve learned that building evidence with our agency partners starts with a commitment to transparency, rigor, and close collaboration.

Hello AEA365 readers! We’re excited to kick off Government Evaluation TIG Week, a time dedicated to exploring how evaluation strengthens public institutions and enhance government programs and services.

Hi, my name is Rhodri Dierst-Davies, Chair of the American Evaluation Association’s Government Evaluation Topical Interest Group and Director of the California HIV/AIDS Research Program. Hot Tip: The Kids are Not Alright This week’s blogposts have provided examples of opportunities and promises that thoughtful evidence-based evaluations can provide. Our profession works hard to ensure that

I’m Jessica R. Norton, Founder and Principal Consultant of Evidenced Research & Evaluation Consulting. I named my consultancy “Evidenced,” given my deep curiosity for what it means to build and use evidence for social programs and policies. Through years of experience advancing evidence in the government context, I am both encouraged by and uncertain of

Hey there! We’re Eliza Carroll and Will Minor from Deloitte’s Evaluation and Research for Action Center of Excellence. In our work, we collaborate with government agencies to evaluate their impactful initiatives. AI is revolutionizing evaluation by increasing efficiency across all steps of the process, from data aggregation to logic modeling and more. Government agencies at