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I’m Michael Quinn Patton (MQP), founder and director of Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Blue Marble Evaluation. This blogpost spotlights some of the insights of Stafford Hood in his own words in the hope that it will lead you to read more of his legacy as experienced through his writings.  In an article for New Directions for Evaluation (No. 157, 2018) he shared “Reflections on the Journey of One Aspiring Culturally Responsive Evaluator—Thus Far.” He wrote:

Anushiik (thank you) Kiisheelumukweengw (Creator) eelu miiluyeengw (for giving us) Kikhay waak Wuliit Eelaangoomaatiit (our Leader/Teacher and Good Relative), Dr. Stafford Hood (African American/Mississippi Choctaw). Wulahkameew wulahlokayaan waak wulakkuniimeew (it is a beautiful day to do good work and to say good things).

Hello! I’m Pamela Frazier-Anderson, a culturally responsive program evaluator and the founder of Kandaki Tech, a responsive website design company. In Reflections on the Journey of One Aspiring Culturally Responsive Evaluator-Thus Far, Dr. Stafford Hood wrote, “I have gotten beyond trying to explain how I got here. I do not think I have been in control of this ride; a lot of it does not make sense. Just a quick, subtle change of destiny and someone else would have been sitting here-not me.”

Hello! I am Silva Ferretti, an independent consultant working mostly with development and humanitarian organizations. I am keen to understand “how change really happens” – in the practice and in complex setups. I craft my approaches to be learning-focused, participatory, fresh, creative, fun… yet deep!

In yesterday’s post, I shared with you my reflections about the current AI technology and its potential role in the field of M&E. Today, I want to speak to a common concern about AI: if it’s so good at doing our jobs, am I concerned that it will one day replace us completely?

Hello! I am Silva Ferretti, an independent consultant working mostly with development and humanitarian organizations. I am keen to understand “how change really happens” – in the practice and in complex setups. I craft my approaches to be learning-focused, participatory, fresh, creative, fun… yet deep!

By now, you have likely heard of ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence model that interacts in a conversational format. I have been playing with it for some time now. Not only am I amazed by it, I am surprised by the lack of debate regarding AI’s role in development and humanitarian program management. It is a game changer. We as a field should be looking into it NOW.

Happy Thursday, AEA365 community! My name is Liz DiLuzio. When I’m not curating the blog, I can be found teaching anything from one-day workshops to semester-long courses on tons of topics related to data analysis.

A student of mine recently applied to a MEL position where the first round of the selection process was a practical timed exercise in Excel. She wanted to know, based on my experience in the field, what topics I thought she should review before completing this exercise.

How’s that for a fun question?

Here’s what I told her.

My name is Quisha Brown and I am a nonprofit consultant and co-founder of Humanistic Care, LLC, an organization offering culturally responsive solutions to tough challenges faced by nonprofits serving marginalized people. I’m also the Author of “Racial Equity Lens Logic Model & Theory of Change” as well as the newly released short and simple guide “Using the Progressive Outcomes Scale Logic Model to Evaluate Systems Change: A Housing Industry Case Study”. This blog post discusses strategies for how to stop reducing people of color to numbers by focusing evaluation on their real life stories rather than quantitative data.  
Program evaluation is an essential part of providing quality afterschool programming to youth and their families.  Evaluation becomes more powerful and impactful when all of the stakeholders are involved in the evaluation process (O’Donoghue, Kirschner, & McLaughlin, 2003).  But how do organizations providing youth programs involve young people in program planning and evaluation?

Hello! We are Kim Firth Leonard, Leonard Research & Evaluation, LLC, and Oregon Community Foundation, and Sheila B. Robinson, Custom Professional Learning, LLC, co-authors of the text Designing Quality Survey Questions (Sage, 2018). We met on Twitter and now have been writing about survey design together for 10 years via our blogs, working with clients to design surveys, teaching survey design workshops, and presenting about survey design at conferences, including AEA.

Hi! I’m Stephanie Mui, Assistant Director of Program Evaluation and Planning at Good Shepherd Services. For the past seventeen years, I have been the internal evaluation for their afterschool programs. 

Program evaluation is an essential part of providing quality afterschool programming to youth and their families.  Evaluation becomes more powerful and impactful when all of the stakeholders are involved in the evaluation process (O’Donoghue, Kirschner, & McLaughlin, 2003).  But how do organizations providing youth programs involve young people in program planning and evaluation?

Hi! We are representing AEA’s Local Affiliate Collaborative (LAC) as active members of our local affiliates, Gulf Coast Evaluation Network (Steve) and Chicagoland Evaluation Association (Casey and Sheila). Before each AEA conference, the LAC organizes a pre-conference retreat where affiliate leaders come together in community. For many, it’s a conference highlight!

We organized this year’s retreat and want to share our experience. It was hosted in the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s headquarters, where we facilitated roundtables asking how affiliates can prioritize three complementary values: equity, trust, and self-care.