MSI Fellowship Week: Introducing the ‘23-’24 AEA MSI Fellows

Hello! We are the ‘23-’24 AEA Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellows, under the leadership of  Prof. Arthur E. Hernández. The purpose of the MSI fellowship is to “increase the participation of evaluators and academics from underrepresented groups in the profession of evaluation and in the American Evaluation Association” with a thematic focus of learning about and incorporating culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) in our teaching and work. We are thrilled to host this week’s AEA 365 Blog series. To kick off our week, let’s focus on sharing our own lessons learned and reflections from this experience of diving into the world of CREE, sharing why we applied to the MSI fellowship, and how our journey has led us to our blog posts.

Kunga Denzongpa (Monday): I am an early career professional trained to pursue academia, but my commitment to community-engaged service-focused research and evaluation priorities led me to the world of non-profit research and evaluation. This change in career trajectory required me to continue seeking professional development and methodological training beyond my workspace. I applied to the MSI fellowship to rigorously center the community in the work that I do. CREE’s fundamental commitment to social justice and equity is perfectly in alignment with my commitment to inclusive and equitable public health research and evaluation. My blog post discusses crucial challenges that non-profit organizations experience in grant writing, and the importance of CREE in non-profit community-engaged work.

Elizabeth Bishop (Tuesday): Initially, I applied to the MSI fellowship to connect with community; it was termination of all positions associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Florida in order to comply with new state regulations that inspired me to write about CREE. When I heard that the University of Oklahoma changed the name of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, to the Division of Access and Opportunity, I could only think of Jacques Derrida and his idea of some text continuing to exist “under erasure.” Does culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) open a possible strategy to act on AEA values (“excellence in evaluation practice, utilization of evaluation findings, and inclusion and diversity in the evaluation community”) under similar circumstances?

Yiwei Zhang (Wednesday): Social work’s commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion makes culturally-responsive practice a crucial part of its academic curriculum. However, students often struggle to apply these practices in a more comprehensive and in-depth way, which can fail to capture the authenticity of the community’s knowledge. This inspired me to apply for the MSI fellowship to explore how CREE can be integrated into social work education with creative and engaging approaches to amplify communities’ lived experiences. My blog offers suggestions for embedding CREE into social work classrooms, based on insights gained from this journey.

Rey Galope (Thursday): I was briefly introduced to CREE in a pre-conference workshop of the 2022 Evaluation Conference in New Orleans. Since then, I have begun to intentionally study and learn more about the ongoing theoretical developments in program evaluation, e.g., wider recognition of complexity in the evaluation process, focus on utilization, and emphasis on equity and social justice, and the dramatic technological shifts that can potentially upend our profession, e.g., generative AI’s ability to streamline the program evaluation process. I am fortunate to be part of a fellowship of five program evaluation educators and practitioners who have interrogated these emerging evaluation issues, approaches, and technological developments with an open and curious mind. My blog post later this week will explore my evolving thinking about the complementary relationship between numbers and stories in painting a more nuanced picture of program impact and fostering a deeper understanding of the complex realities experienced by program participants.

Rachel Berkowitz (Friday): I applied to the MSI fellowship in order to strengthen my ability to teach and implement evaluation in a way that aligns with my values. In public health, “health justice and equity” is a core value – we have an obligation to address the structures and systems which create and perpetuate unjust differences in health and wellness. And to do that, those who are most adversely impacted by those structures and systems must be the drivers of the work. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to delve further into CREE, an approach that expands what participatory evaluation should look like, with colleagues from different disciplines. My blog post reflects this continued grappling with ethics and evaluation.

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The American Evaluation Association is celebrating AEA Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowship Experience week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from AEA’s MSI Fellows. 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.