We are Ayesha Boyce, Dylan Felt, Nisaa Kirtman and Stephen Maack. Starting in January of 2022, the DEI Metrics and Assessments subgroup was tasked with recommending indicators and measures of diversity, equity and inclusion relevant to the governance of the Association to be used in future evaluation of board performance.
The open-ended nature of this charge allowed us a significant degree of flexibility in identifying the metrics which we felt were most important to meaningfully understand and measure AEA’s DEI journey. We each brought different understandings of the ideological and material functions of this work and our roles as working group members. To some of us, DEI initiatives represent a progressive step forward to measure superficial but useful data that can be used to impact institutional changes. For others, use of “DEI” feels like a commitment to measures that do little to fundamentally capture the ways dominant culture and whiteness prevail within AEA.
Resolving and navigating these tensions became a core part of our collaborations, as we reflected on our prior blog. To truly have a meaningful pathway for identifying metrics, we realized that we needed to backtrack, starting with the 2018 Membership Engagement, Diversity & Leadership Development (MEDLD) report, its recommendations, and posing some critical questions that pertain to metrics for AEA:
- To what extent are these recommendations from the MEDLD report actually happening?
- If we were to populate a list of metrics that AEA can adopt, what would that look like?
- What other information gathering do we need to make informed decisions about AEA becoming a more accountable organization?
- How can we ensure this work and AEA’s commitment to it is sustainable beyond this group?
We made the decision to craft a two-pronged exploratory plan that included:
- Information Gathering: Because DEI work is an evolving process for AEA, we wanted to begin by acknowledging and building on the work that had come before us. We therefore started this process by reviewing the 2018 MEDLD report prepared for the AEA board. We then interviewed Melvin Hall and Robin Miller, the lead authors of the MEDLD report and Chairs of the MEDLD taskforce. We asked them about their process, reflections looking back, recommended metrics, and how they would like to see this work develop.
- Metrics Brainstorming: We simultaneously began to populate and refine a list of potential DEI metrics. We began with each of the five committee members individually brainstorming a list of suitable metrics, which we occasionally revisited during our information gathering process. We then decided to use the Water of Systems Change framework to organize our metrics (Kania et al., 2018) to align with the framework identified by our corresponding metrics subgroup (also tasked with reviewing existing indicators and measures of DEI, and to identify gaps which shall form the basis of the Executive Director’s annual “State of the Association” monitoring report on DEI provided to the Board of Directors). Then three of the five committee members organized the brainstormed metrics into each of the categories for systems change
- Policies, Practices, and Resource Flows (Structural Change- explicit)
- Relationships and Connections, and Power Dynamics (Relational Change- semi explicit)
- Mental Models (Transformative Change-implicit)
In keeping with our orientation to DEI work as a process of change, we share the current draft of our recommendations for metrics with the hope that they will undergo a further democratic process of review prior to adoption. As other working group members review and provide feedback, we also invite readers to share your thoughts on this table with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, and to building a better AEA, together.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting DEI Week with our colleagues in AEA’s DEI Working Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from working group members. 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. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.