Hi everyone! We are Eric Barela & Rhonda Williams, this year’s AEA Awards Working Group Co-chairs. I’m Eric and I’ve been a member of AEA since 2000. I’m based in Los Angeles and have served in a variety of TIG and Association roles throughout my tenure, most recently as Co-Chair of the Awards Task Force that revised the Awards Program in 2021-2022 and as last year’s Awards Working Group Co-Chair. I’m Rhonda and I have been a member of AEA since 2017. I am based in Dallas and have served in a variety of TIG leadership roles and this year’s Co-Chair alongside Eric.

Hello from Seattle! My name is Joel Gutierrez, and I am a Director at ORS Impact. We partner with a lot with funders eager to evaluate and learn from their investments in complex systems change initiatives.

Sending love to all of my evaluation friends worldwide! My name is monique liston and I am the Founder, Chief Strategist, and Joyful Militant at UBUNTU Research and Evaluation based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As our organization is working towards a decade of learning with organizations using evaluative thinking, we wanted to share three lessons for all evaluators working with philanthropy for a more equitable, just and liberated world. Our practice of equity, justice and liberation is never episodic but is always a constant persistent call to action in our work. We must practice the world we want to create in order for others to join us.

Greetings! I am Emily Kalnicky, Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at the non-profit Partnership for Public Service, along with being an independent consultant. I started at the Partnership in February 2021, and I am responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing policies and procedures for all monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities, as well as building capacity for their use. 

Hello! I am Dr. Albertina Lopez, director at the Center for Evaluation Innovation where we partner with philanthropy on strategy, learning, and evaluation efforts that intend to further racial equity and social justice. Today I am discussing how to design foundation learning and evaluation (L&E) functions so that they are grounded in clear purpose and values.

Greetings! We are Hippolyt Pul from the Institute for Peace and Development in Tamale, Ghana and Carlisle Levine from BLE Solutions in Arlington, Virginia, USA. We are dedicated to using monitoring, evaluation, and learning to ensure that power and ownership are in the hands of those most affected by or proximate to a situation, event, or initiative.

Hello, I am Barbara Klugman, strategy and evaluation practitioner working with social justice oriented funders, international networks and non-profits globally. I find that usually when I first work with groups who rely on donor funding, they think about and ‘do’ monitoring and evaluation in order to meet their funders’ reporting requirements.

Hi! I’m Emily Parrott, PhD, Senior Director of Research & Evaluation at Thrive Scholars. I have over 15 years of experience in research, evaluation, and nonprofit management—including serving as in-house evaluation staff and an external consultant—and I’ve learned a lot about the impact that strategic data collection and utilization can have on nonprofits. I’m writing to pass on four key takeaways from my experience that can help evaluators build data capacity at their organizations.