Washington Evaluators Affiliate

Hello, I’m Quisha Brown, author of “Racial Equity Lens Logic Model & Theory of Change” – a transformative guidebook offering step-by-step instructions on building a people-centered Progressive Outcomes Scale Logic Model (POSLM). In a world where social mission organizations struggle to demonstrate evidence of their effectiveness, the need to enhance the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act in …

Washington Evaluators Affiliate Week: Evidence Act: Building Internal Evaluation Capacity for Social Impact Organizations by Quisha Brown Read More »

How can the US federal government bring new perspectives of evidence generation and evaluation to improve programs and policy? I’m Matt St. John, Program Evaluation Specialist with Guidehouse and Evidence Act advisor to the US Department of State (DOS), and I would like to share one initiative that I am working on with my colleagues …

Washington Evaluators Affiliate Week: Research Partnerships for Better Evidence-based Policy Making by Matt St. John Read More »

My name is Terell Lasane, and I am the Assistant Director, Center for Evaluation Methods and Issues (CEMI) in the Applied Research and Methods team at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Language matters. And that’s particularly true when unpacking the Evidence Act. Early on in my evaluation career, I evaluated public programs for state, local, and federal entities. When I worked with these organizations, I always emphasized that fulfilling reporting requirements for accountability provided unique opportunities for program learning, and that these functions should be paired together whenever it was appropriate to do so. The actionable intelligence that could be garnered from evaluation activity is supported by the Evidence Act, and the legislation provides a valuable framework for marrying accountability with program learning and program improvement. Evaluation practitioners have long recognized the importance of this marriage for better government at all levels.

Hi!  I’m Natalie Donahue. I am the Chief of Evaluation in the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ Monitoring Evaluation Learning and Innovation (MELI) Unit and am the Washington Evaluators (WE) Past President. The Evidence Act has had a great impact on federal evaluation practices. Over the past five years we’ve seen federal agencies create learning agendas, increase capacity-building efforts, update (or, in some cases, create) evaluation policies and accompanying guidance documents, and increase collaborative efforts around evaluation – both internally and with other agencies.

My name is Valerie Jean Caracelli, and I am a Senior Social Science Analyst in the Center for Evaluation Methods and Issues, Applied Research and Methods team at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. As we greet the 5th year anniversary of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, it is useful to reflect on federal evaluation and its use in decision making prior to the passage of the Evidence Act. In 2013 a series of evaluation questions were introduced into a generalizable survey of federal civilian managers and supervisors to obtain their perspectives on several results-oriented management topics, including the extent of and barriers to evaluation use. The survey results indicated just over a third (37 percent) of federal managers reported that an evaluation had been completed in the past 5 years on any program, operation, or project they were involved in. GAO concluded that agencies’ lack of evaluations may be the greatest barrier to their ability to inform program management and policy making.

My name is Sana Ahmed Wilder, and I’m a program evaluator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. A five year old’s birthday is a big deal. It may be the first they’ll actually remember, a milestone celebrating increased independence, and the last one before launch into formal education; yep, I’m talking Kindergarten. So, a very happy and important 5th birthday to the Evidence Act!

My name is Nicole Germano, and I serve as the Washington Evaluators’ Communications Chair. By day, I am an evaluation contractor at the Department of State. This week, Washington Evaluators will be sharing a series of posts related to the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, in celebration of the legislation’s fifth birthday. The Foundations for …

Washington Evaluators Affiliate Week: What is the Evidence Act, And Why Are We Still Talking About It? by Nicole Germano Read More »

My name is Evan Seidner, and I am the Washington Evaluators’ Program Committee Chair and Scholarship Coordinator.

I’ve been an evaluator my entire life; but it took me until my final year of grad school to figure that out for myself. I was getting my master’s degree in international relations because it felt like the logical next step as I wanted to “course correct” back into a career in security studies. My first real job after receiving my BA was in Tokyo doing procurement and financials for a Japanese grain company because I had the language skills and the willingness to hop on a flight at any moment. While working there I traveled to meet clients across Japan and the US and other countries across Asia.

Hi, I’m Sana Ahmed Wilder. One of the nice things about being a public school teacher was the finality of the school year. The last day would arrive, gradebooks would close a few days later, and I would lock my door and walk away from the classroom for a few, short months.

Hi there! I am Elizabeth Botkin, a member of the Washington Evaluators affiliate and a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at the U.S. Department of State (DoS). I want to tell you a story about how I became an evaluator to hopefully normalize the twisty turny paths a lot of evaluators take.