Board of Directors

The Washington Evaluators is managed by a Board of Directors as well as dozens of volunteers. Five voting Board positions are elected (unless filled by appointment due to vacancy). The Presidential cycle is three years, with the elected individual serving first as President-Elect, and then assuming the role of President, and then Past President. The Treasurer and Secretary positions are held for two years. Four other voting Board positions are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Board. The 2021 Board members, as well as other Washington Evaluators leaders and volunteers, are listed below.

Board Members

Beeta Tahmassebi, President

EnCompass, LLC

Patricia Moore Shaffer is the deputy director for research & analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts and serves as agency lead for evaluation and performance measurement. Prior to joining the NEA, Patricia served as the evaluation manager for NASA’s Office of Education and vice president for research & development at the Educational Policy Institute. Patricia also owns Shaffer Evaluation Group, a small evaluation firm that specializes in educational evaluation studies and evaluation capacity-building. Patricia earned a Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership at the College of William & Mary, a M.A. in Curriculum Studies at the University of Toronto, and also holds a bachelors degree in the visual arts. Prior to her term as President of Washington Evaluators, Patricia held several evaluation leadership positions: WE Communications Committee Chair for two terms, Eastern Evaluation Research Society board member, AEA Program Design TIG leadership committee member, and treasurer for the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness.  

Emily Bango, President-Elect

Internews

Emily is a regional monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) specialist at Internews. In this role she manages and continually improves the research, learning and evaluation methodologies and systems that measure the results and overall impact of Internews projects implemented in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC). She brings over ten years of experience leading project management and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) efforts for human rights and international development programs with a longstanding regional focus in LAC. In her current role, she utilizes skills and perspectives developed through prior work with other U.S.-based international NGOs, at the U.S. Department of State, and as an independent evaluator and MERL consultant. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester and a master’s degree from the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Jessica Pomerantz is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with USAID’s Middle East Bureau. Before working at USAID, she was an internal evaluator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Prior to government service, Jessica was a business journalist for Albuquerque Business First and operations manager for an agribusiness in New Mexico specializing in green chile peppers. Jessica formerly served as the assistant to the permanent observer for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance at the United Nations and in the evaluation unit of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in Kabul, Afghanistan. She has a masters degree in public administration, international development, from the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and a BA in political science and economics from the University of New Mexico.

Katherine is a Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Specialist with USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, contracted through Jefferson Solutions.

Previously, Katherine served as a Monitoring & Evaluation Associate with PYXERA Global. In this capacity, she supported the organization’s Global Pro Bono practice area through impact measurement and management of M&E portfolios for several Fortune 500 client companies. Prior to her work in the non-profit sector, Katherine worked for four years at the United States Department of Agriculture where her focus areas included rural development and utilities, women in agriculture as well as faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. From 2011-2013, she served with the Peace Corps in Ukraine as a TEFL Volunteer and USAID Small Project Assistance Program Specialist.

Katherine holds an MA from American University in International Relations as well as a BA from the University of Michigan where she double majored in Comparative Religion and English Language & Literature. She is proficient in Russian and Portuguese and holds a private pilot certificate.

U.S. Department of State

Natalie Donahue is currently the Chief of Evaluation in the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) where she directs the monitoring and evaluation of educational and exchange programming.  She also serves as an adjunct at American University in the School of International Service.  Previously, Natalie served as a Senior M&E Specialist for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs' Assistance Coordination Office (NEA/AC), where she was responsible for advising staff and grantees on program design and monitoring activities, designing and managing evaluations, and leading capacity-building efforts within the Bureau. Prior to joining the Department of State, she served as DevTech Systems, Inc’s Director of Business Development, where she provided technical assistance on various Department of State M&E-related projects.  A proud Columbus, Ohio native, Natalie has a Master's in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Marketing – both from The Ohio State University.

Esther C. Nolton, PhD, Program Committee Chair

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Esther C. Nolton (she/her) is a Program Officer in the Evaluation and Analysis department at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She has an extensive background as a sports medicine clinician and researcher and authored several publications related to neuromuscular biomechanics; athletic training professional practice; orthopedic surgery techniques; dance medicine; and health quality and functional measurement. After discovering her love for research and evaluation, Esther completed her PhD in Research & Evaluation Methods with a secondary specialization in Health & Education Policy from George Mason University. She now specializes in quantitative measurement, survey, and qualitative methodologies and continues to develop skills in facilitating strategic planning, organizational learning, and evaluation policy processes from her experience as an AEA Graduate Education Diversity Internship Scholar placed in the Evaluation and Assessment Capacity Section at the National Science Foundation. She continues to be committed to studying social determinants of health and education; evaluation practice and policy; research and evaluation methodology; democratizing evidence utilization; and organizational behavior and processes.

Esther is dedicated to serving the evaluation community. As a graduate student, she served as Co-Lead of the DC Consortium Student Conference on Evaluation & Policy (DCSCEP) Organizing Committee. Since graduating, she has spoken on several panels for new and emerging evaluators to help peers who are navigating a new career in evaluation, especially those who are also career switchers. She is currently the Program Co-Chair for the AEA Evaluation Policy TIG; member of the AEA Research on Evaluation TIG Workgroup; member of the AEA Website Committee; a frequent AEA365 Blog contributor; and was an active volunteer with the Washington Evaluators (member of the Membership Committee, Program Committee, and Anti-Racism Task Force) before joining the Board in 2021 as Program Chair.

Dr. Mindelyn Anderson is the Founder + Principal of Mirror Group LLC, a consulting firm that leverages partnerships with fellow evaluators, researchers, subject matter experts, and change makers to bring collaborative, participatory, utilization-focused evaluation and capacity-building to communities and learning organizations. She earned her doctorate in Sociology from The Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in Sociology with minors in Anthropology and Policy Studies from UCLA. Mindelyn, a California Bay Area native, currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband, three daughters, and a son. You can find her out and about in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area serving community organizations dear to her including Zion Church and John Eaton Elementary School as well as working toward racial equity and inclusion nationally and internationally through Juniors Read and Mirror Group. Feel free to ask her anything about evaluation, work, life, and everything in between.

Katie Pitts, Evaluation Without Borders Co-coordinator

DC Department of Behavioral Health

Katie Pitts recently completed a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She is a Certified Work Incentive Coordinator with experience supporting people with disabilities in successfully obtaining both vocational and educational goals. She has worked directly with Social Security on the Ticket to Work program, and provided benefits counseling for Social Security Work Incentives and support with overpayments to Veterans in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Her experience includes both financial advocacy and counseling with veterans, active-duty officers, and law enforcement. Katie has presented on Ticket to Work and Work Incentives at national disability employment events such as the National Alliance for Mental Illness and Association of People Supporting Employment First national conferences. Katie Pitts is currently a Program Analyst at the Department of Behavioral Health in Washington D.C. where she collects data and provides support and training to agencies providing support to people battling mental illnesses. Katie hopes that she can continue to act as an advocate and break down barriers to health care through direct services and evaluation.

Fanni Farago, Scholarship Co-Coordinator

Fanni is a second-year PhD student in Sociology at George Mason University and a Research Assistant at the Center for Social Science Research (CSSR) and the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR). She came to Mason after obtaining her M.A. in Sociology from the University of Houston. Fanni is a new and emerging evaluator with mixed-methods research experiences and interests in education and immigration related program evaluations. Prior to graduate school, she obtained a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and provided direct services to immigrants in various roles. For example, she worked as an employment-based immigration paralegal at Foster LLP and as a Workforce Development Intern for refugees at the International Rescue Committee. These work experiences continue to inform her desire to become an evaluator who can help organizations assess and develop their support services for varied immigrant communities.

Eric Keys, Scholarship Co-Coordinator
U.S. Agency for International Development

Eric Keys is currently working on spinning up monitoring, evaluation, and learning for the USAID Digital Strategy. Before coming to USAID he worked in various federal agencies (DOD, DoS, NSF) promoting MEL and impact assessment.  Trained as a geographer he has worked in Latin America and Africa to help communities use MEL to assert self-governance, natural resource management, and development initiatives. He is a (sort-of) fourth generation DC resident and loves what the area has to offer, especially when it is fully open for business.