Greetings, evaluation friends! Elizabeth Grim here, Founder of Elizabeth Grim Consulting and Curator of AEA365. I blend learning, evaluation, and strategy to support purpose-driven organizations in making bold decisions with data through intentional inquiry, meaningful measurement, and sustainable solutions.
What is your current role within AEA?
As Curator of AEA365, my role is to support our awesome Lead Curator, Liz DiLuzio by coordinating and curating one week of blog content a month. This includes reaching out to that week’s volunteer, reviewing and formatting the blog posts, loading the posts into WordPress, and being an advocate for the blog.
What professional path led you here?
I’ve always been a nerdy kid who loved reading, math, puzzles, and trying to understand how things work. But I also have a creative side that finds so much joy and comfort in music (while my piano and flute skills are rusty, I still sing in a community chorale) and photography, and a feisty side that has made me a fierce advocate for social justice. I knew I couldn’t sit behind a desk all day and crunch numbers. People, communities, and service needed to be at the core of whatever path I chose. My path has had many twists and turns, but once I found evaluation during my dual Masters in Social Work and Masters in Public Health program, I knew it was the perfect blend of science and art to support people, programs, and policies.
My journey to becoming Curator started about a decade ago when I first got involved with AEA in graduate school by attending and presenting at the conference, joining TIGs, and participating in my local affiliate. Ever since then, I’ve looked for ways to give back to the evaluation community, either by presenting at the conference, previously serving on the Eastern Evaluation Research Society board of directors, and now as Curator of AEA365.
What excites you most about your work?
What I love most about my consulting business is that I get to support purpose-driven changemakers in doing their work by asking meaningful questions and putting their data puzzles together. I work with the most amazing and passionate partners who are making sure children have quality early learning opportunities, families have access to nutritious food and affordable housing, and young adults can pursue higher education. They are the heart of the work and what keeps me going.
What excites me most about AEA365 is the opportunity to learn from both emerging and experienced voices in the field of evaluation. I also get to meet a ton of new colleagues by coordinating different weeks, which is really fun!
What is the achievement you are most proud of?
I’m really proud of hiking all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4000 footer mountains. That was a journey that fostered some of my best friendships, taught me to trust myself in new ways, and gave me a second home in the mountains.
How can members get involved in what you do?
We are always looking for new ideas to highlight on the blog. There’s no official application or qualifications other than a desire to share educational content like lessons learned, hot tips, and rad resources with the evaluation community. Take a look at the contribution guidelines and then send us an email at aea365@eval.org. We’d love to get you on the calendar!
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.