I am Leah Christina Neubauer, Associate Professor, CREA Faculty Affiliate, and Chicagoland Evaluation Affiliate member. I am deeply humbled to contribute to a week honoring the great Professor, Dr. Stafford L. Hood. I’ve been challenged to put my deep reflections in writing. I welcome your understanding and interest as I share out some of it all.

My name is Karen Kirkhart, Professor Emerita at the School of Social Work at Syracuse University and an affiliated faculty member of the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Stafford Hood was a treasured friend who anchored me personally, professionally, and intellectually. He was genuine to the core. Personally, my strongest image of Stafford is his powerful presence, his bear hugs, his welcoming greetings, and his love of music, a great meal, and black Labs. He was always good company! And Stafford schooled me. His early writings and his historical project, Nobody Knows My Name, introduced me to Black scholars I had not previously heard of. But he also schooled me on jazz, gumbo, Omega Psi Phi, and the cultural significance of the Chicago Cubs vs. the White Sox!

Greetings from Vidhya Shanker, originator of #WhyIsEvaluationSoWhite? and convener of #TheMay13Group. I’m humbled and honored to share how Dr. Stafford Hood’s work is pivotal to understand the origins of evaluation’s demographic, ideological, and epistemological whiteness.

Hi, I’m Dominica McBride, Founder of BECOME and a past student and long-time mentee and co-
conspirator of Stafford Hood. While ineffable, the following words represent just the surface of the depth of influence Stafford Hood had on my life, using my life as just one example of the many lives and minds he shaped.

My name is Ayesha Boyce. I am an associate professor of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU) and co-lead the STEM Program Evaluation Laboratory. Others within this week have done a beautiful job of highlighting some of Dr. Hood ‘s amazing contributions to our field. So, in my post, I reflect on my first meeting with him and some professional lessons I have learned from him. I met Dr. Hood at a pivotal point in my burgeoning career. I was just 25 years old and working for the Arizona Department of Education (ADOE). My supervisor and colleagues suggested I seek out Dr. Hood to inquire about a PhD program at ASU. I walked into his office at ASU and there were books in stacks on the floor, along the wall, and on his desk. Moving boxes were strewn across the room. Here is my vivid recollection of that meeting.

I’m Michael Quinn Patton (MQP), founder and director of Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Blue Marble Evaluation. This blogpost spotlights some of the insights of Stafford Hood in his own words in the hope that it will lead you to read more of his legacy as experienced through his writings.  In an article for New Directions for Evaluation (No. 157, 2018) he shared “Reflections on the Journey of One Aspiring Culturally Responsive Evaluator—Thus Far.” He wrote:

Anushiik (thank you) Kiisheelumukweengw (Creator) eelu miiluyeengw (for giving us) Kikhay waak Wuliit Eelaangoomaatiit (our Leader/Teacher and Good Relative), Dr. Stafford Hood (African American/Mississippi Choctaw). Wulahkameew wulahlokayaan waak wulakkuniimeew (it is a beautiful day to do good work and to say good things).

Hello! I’m Pamela Frazier-Anderson, a culturally responsive program evaluator and the founder of Kandaki Tech, a responsive website design company. In Reflections on the Journey of One Aspiring Culturally Responsive Evaluator-Thus Far, Dr. Stafford Hood wrote, “I have gotten beyond trying to explain how I got here. I do not think I have been in control of this ride; a lot of it does not make sense. Just a quick, subtle change of destiny and someone else would have been sitting here-not me.”