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AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: The Power of Perspective: Generations of Evaluators Generating Change by Vidhya Shanker, Ayesha Boyce, and Libby Smith

1 Comment / Uncategorized / July 26, 2022

Greetings from Vidhya Shanker, co-chair with Nisaa Kirtman and Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro of AEA’s DEI Working Group, along with Ayesha Boyce and Libby Smith. With all the recent hubbub around “DEI,” have you ever wondered where the US field of evaluation was when previous reminders of extreme inequality, polarization, and systemic oppression unfolded—before COVID and the …

AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: The Power of Perspective: Generations of Evaluators Generating Change by Vidhya Shanker, Ayesha Boyce, and Libby Smith Read More »

AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: A DEI Statement that Feeds Transformation In, Through, and Around Evaluation by Jen Heeg, Donna Mertens, Esther Nolton, Vidhya Shanker, and Libby Smith

3 Comments / Uncategorized / July 28, 2022

Greetings from Jen Heeg, Donna Mertens, Esther Nolton, Vidhya Shanker, and Libby Smith. Together, we are developing AEA’s updated DEI statement. In fulfilling Charge #1, we found ourselves resorting organically to cooking metaphors. While not premeditated, upon reflection, we appreciated and began intentionally cultivating the metaphor because it honors types of knowledge and work that …

AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: A DEI Statement that Feeds Transformation In, Through, and Around Evaluation by Jen Heeg, Donna Mertens, Esther Nolton, Vidhya Shanker, and Libby Smith Read More »

AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: Introducing the American Evaluation Association’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Working Group by Nisaa Kirtman, Vidhya Shanker, and Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / July 25, 2022

Welcome to a week of posts from members of the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Working Group from its Co-Chairs: Nisaa Kirtman, Vidhya Shanker, and Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro. Below, and throughout the week, we share a bit about the Working Group, our process, what we have done so far, as well as …

AEA’s DEI Working Group Week: Introducing the American Evaluation Association’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Working Group by Nisaa Kirtman, Vidhya Shanker, and Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro Read More »

Decolonizing Evaluation Week: Unearthing Evaluation’s Roots by Albertina Lopez, Aisha Rios, Sheri Scott, Vidhya Shanker, Libby Smith, and Carolyn Camman

3 Comments / Uncategorized / November 7, 2021

Hello! We are an interdependent coalition of illegitimate, invalid, alien, non-conforming, under-represented folx committed to collective liberation (in no hierarchical order): Albertina Lopez, Aisha Rios, Sheri Scott, Vidhya Shanker, Libby Smith, and Carolyn Camman. We are six of eight organizers who have been collaboratively contributing our labor to challenge the perpetuation of whiteness in and …

Decolonizing Evaluation Week: Unearthing Evaluation’s Roots by Albertina Lopez, Aisha Rios, Sheri Scott, Vidhya Shanker, Libby Smith, and Carolyn Camman Read More »

Connecting the Intra/Inter/Structural Week: As above, so below; as within, so without by Vidhya Shanker

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / July 10, 2021

Greetings! I’m Vidhya Shanker, an interdependent evaluator of South Indian, oppressive-caste ancestry settled on the traditional homelands of the Dakota. I’m writing about the latest iteration in my quest to unlearn the binaries inherent in colonial knowledge systems and (post)positivism, which continue to underlie most evaluation and social sector work. I’ll offer some examples that …

Connecting the Intra/Inter/Structural Week: As above, so below; as within, so without by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis Week: Welcome to the Revolution! MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis by co-founders Tia Bastian, Carolina De La Rosa Mateo, Anne Gomez, and Vidhya Shanker

1 Comment / Uncategorized / May 23, 2021

Hello! We are Tia Bastian, Carolina De La Rosa Mateo, Anne Gomez, and Vidhya Shanker. Minnesota is home to: some of the largest numbers of  foundations, nonprofits, and evaluators—including two of the most influential—per capita; some of the largest urban indigenous populations and some of the largest refugee populations; and some of the worst racial …

MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis Week: Welcome to the Revolution! MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis by co-founders Tia Bastian, Carolina De La Rosa Mateo, Anne Gomez, and Vidhya Shanker Read More »

FIE TIG Week: Evaluation at a crossroads: Time to choose who we want to be and how we think by Vidhya Shanker

4 Comments / Feminist Issues in Evaluation, Uncategorized / March 12, 2021

Greetings from Vidhya Shanker, an interdependent evaluation scholar and practitioner. With the new year, the inauguration, and the launch of vaccinations, it’s easy to let diverse optics fool us into thinking that we’ve turned a corner and lull us back to business as usual. This liberal narrative of progress—from which evaluation and its surrounding industries …

FIE TIG Week: Evaluation at a crossroads: Time to choose who we want to be and how we think by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

ITE TIG Week: Doing no harm with technology in evaluation: Part 2 by Antony Maikuri, Veronica Olazabal, and Vidhya Shanker

2 Comments / Integrating Technology into Evaluation / January 15, 2021

Hello again! It’s Antony, Veronica, and Vidhya back to consider what an expanded and deepened idea of harm and healing means in practice for the integration of technology into evaluation. In much of our work, tools such as information systems, mobile data, biometric registration, and digital dashboards are increasingly used to collect, identify, and track …

ITE TIG Week: Doing no harm with technology in evaluation: Part 2 by Antony Maikuri, Veronica Olazabal, and Vidhya Shanker Read More »

ITE TIG Week: Doing no harm with technology in evaluation: Part 1 by Antony Maikuri, Veronica Olazabal, and Vidhya Shanker

Leave a Comment / Integrating Technology into Evaluation / January 15, 2021

Hello! We are Antony Maikuri of the University of Minnesota, Veronica Olazabal of The Rockefeller Foundation, and independent evaluator/scholar Vidhya Shanker. Today we start a two-part entry that continues an ongoing conversation about harm, healing, and evaluation. Tomorrow, we consider what expanding and deepening our ideas about harm and healing means in practice for the …

ITE TIG Week: Doing no harm with technology in evaluation: Part 1 by Antony Maikuri, Veronica Olazabal, and Vidhya Shanker Read More »

FIE TIG Week: Can Evaluation Touch Your Heart? Trauma-Informed and Healing-Centered Practice…and Feminism by Allison Shurilla and Vidhya Shanker

2 Comments / Feminist Issues in Evaluation, Uncategorized / November 14, 2020

We are Allison Shurilla, independent evaluation consultant, and Dr. Vidhya Shanker, independent evaluator and scholar. Collaborating on this blog has allowed us to identify how we are already related—through our shared connection to feminist evaluation—constituting a potentially healing act. As evaluators start recognizing the importance of understanding our own cultural and institutional power dynamics in …

FIE TIG Week: Can Evaluation Touch Your Heart? Trauma-Informed and Healing-Centered Practice…and Feminism by Allison Shurilla and Vidhya Shanker Read More »