Washington Evaluators WE President's Blog

2026 President's Letter to our Membership

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:28:20 GMT

Dear Evaluation Community,

As we begin 2026, I want to thank you for the energy and commitment you brought to our community last year. We ended 2025 on a high note with a wonderful Holiday Party—an evening that reminded me how strong and resilient our evaluation community is. In recognition of the challenges we collectively navigated, we presented the Volunteer of the Year Award to the entire Evaluation Community for the first time. It’s a meaningful tribute that honors both our shared efforts and our individual contributions to advancing the profession.

Looking ahead, I am excited to share updates on our programming, volunteer opportunities, and membership for the year.

Programming. Our 2026 programming is designed to deepen learning, create connections, and strengthen evaluation practice. Events planned for this year include:

Data Foundation: Federal Evaluation Resources Simplified—Tour the Evidence Act Hub and Help Shape What’s Next
Success Measures: A session examining the impact of evaluator‑led technical assistance on organizational evidence‑building
AI in Evaluation User Group: Discussions and hands‑on demonstrations on how governments and organizations can responsibly leverage artificial intelligence to scale social impact and expand evaluation practice
Networking events, including happy hours and community‑building gatherings
The DC Emerging Evaluators Exchange this spring, offering a platform for students and professionals to share innovative ideas
Collaborative events with AEA and regional partners, providing hybrid and in‑person programming with regional, national, and international significance

Volunteer Opportunities. Our great programming cannot happen without great volunteers. This year, we are expanding opportunities to engage directly with the WE Board through open volunteer positions supporting programming, membership, and community engagement. If you have time, interest, or expertise to share, please consider becoming actively involved with a WE committee to help support an event or initiative.

Membership. We are continuing our reduced $10 membership rate for evaluators who have been laid off, using the honor system for verification. We also welcome additional organizational members and sponsors to partner with us. Organizational memberships are $200 per year and include eight individual memberships with full access to all WE programming and benefits.

In closing, I look forward to continuing to grow this community and fostering meaningful engagement wherever possible. Please connect with us through our LinkedIn page, via our website, or email me directly. We have a year of meaningful learning, innovation, and collaboration ahead. I invite you to get involved. Together, we will continue strengthening evidence, impact, and the profession we share.

Sincerely,
Matt St. John
president@washingtonevaluators.org

A Letter from WE President, Matt St. John

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 18:59:01 GMT

Dear Evaluation Community,

My name is Matt St. John, the new President of Washington Evaluators (WE) starting this year, 2025. I would like to briefly introduce myself and talk about our exciting plans for this year.

I have been on the board of WE for approximately two years and served as Membership Chair for the past year. I have over 15 of experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation from working across diverse sectors such as non-profit, local and federal government, as well as the international sector.

While I may have met some of you at our holiday party last December, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on some exciting developments at WE. I believe WE is a dynamic platform that can connect evaluators from the Washington, DC area and beyond, at every stage of their careers—whether you’re a student just beginning to explore the field or a seasoned leader. I look forward to revitalizing this group and fostering meaningful engagement where possible.

The organization is at and exciting cross-roads. As president I would like to increase our programming and especially look at increasing our engagement with our organizational sponsors. Also, with numerous universities in the area, I would also like to support students around expanding mentorship and scholarship opportunities for the study of evaluation. Finally, I would like to consolidate our membership while expanding our outreach with other evaluation organizations both regionally and beyond the DMV area.

Our new Board is comprised of professional evaluators who share a passion for building a stronger, more connected evaluation community. We have a great year ahead, with several events and initiatives planned for 2025, including:

Expert-led programming focused on various aspects of evaluation
The President’s Dinner and additional networking events, such as happy hours, fostering connections and fellowship
The DC Consortium Student Conference on Evaluation and Policy this Spring, offering a platform for students to share their innovative ideas
Initiatives to spotlight evaluation organizations: In addition to supporting individual evaluators like you, WE hopes to collaborate with organizational sponsors and aim to expand these partnerships this year.

I invite you to participate in one or all of the events!

In conclusion, I would like to reflect on the value of our work as evaluators. Our profession is inherently independent, nonpartisan, and cross-sectoral. According to the American Evaluation Association, our value as evaluators is to "assess the strengths and weaknesses of a program, policy, personnel, product, or organization to improve their effectiveness." In other words, evaluation is also defined as “a systematic process to determine merit, worth, value, or significance of something.” In this period of transition and change, both locally and globally, the skills and insights we bring as evaluative thinkers are more critical than ever in our society.

I invite you to join us in this important work.

Sincerely,

Matt St. John

President, Washington Evaluators

A Letter from our Past President, 2022

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 20:53:33 GMT

Dear Washington Evaluators,

What an already exciting start to 2022! Before I begin looking forward, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank Beeta Tahmassebi, our 2021 WE President, and our 2021 Board of Directors for a truly phenomenal year! Despite the continued challenges we all faced in 2021, our Board rose to the occasion and went above and beyond to serve our members.

If you are interested in learning more about all the amazing things we did in 2021, Washington Evaluators was featured during the week of January 23rd, 2022 for the AEA365 blog. Each day, current and former WE Board members shared “How WE Met the Moment by Focusing on Equity and Access.” The 2021 Annual Report is also available here, which provides additional information about our accomplishments last year.

Under Beeta’s leadership, the Washington Evaluators Board engaged members to chart a new course by developing a new strategic plan, which will guide our activities through 2024. We remain firmly committed to WE’s 2020 statement “Embodying Anti-Racism Principles and Practices in Evaluation” and will build on the momentum generated by our previous action plan by generating a new action plan for 2022, which will be an important goal-setting activity for the current WE Board.

My theme for this year is COMMUNITY. In a time when we are physically distanced, there are two ways in which I plan to focus on building a sense of community:

Redefining Our Identity – During the pandemic, WE has grown by over 60% because virtual programming allowed us to expand our reach by eliminating the commute and welcoming attendees beyond the DC metropolitan region. I will work with our Board members to think about our evolving identity as an organization, expanding our reach within the DC region, leveraging partnerships with other evaluation communities (i.e., AEA, other local affiliates, global communities), and revisiting our programs to ensure they continue to meet the needs and interests of our members.
Rethinking Engagement – WE has always strived to be transparent and inclusive regarding our decisions and activities. We want to hear more from members about how they feel they could be more included, heard, and welcomed in WE Board decisions and activities. I want to think more deeply about the ways we can do even better in including the voices of our members.

As your President, there are two immediate commitments I am making to help WE build a stronger sense of community:

Seek an Understanding – Before we begin conversations about bolstering our identity, partnerships, and engagement, I would like to first understand our current organizational identity. I look forward to working with our Membership and Community Engagement Committees to think about how we can better understand the current demographics of our organization so that we can determine how well we are serving our membership.
Create Space for Networking – In 2022, I look forward to continuing a long-standing tradition of President’s Dinners. I hope to foster community by meeting and getting to know our community members! These dinners are open to all WE members and each will focus on an affinity group or a topic to allow evaluators to see who shares that space with them providing an opportunity to build connections with one another.

Here are three ways our members can contribute to building a strong sense of community:

Show Up – I look forward to continuing to “see” our members present at events and activities this year. We put on amazing programs for our members and I hope you leverage them to build your network and develop your professional skills.
- Check out our upcoming events, which include Board meetings, webinars, networking socials, panel discussions, happy hours, and so much more!
- Explore our incredible Community Engagement programs, including Evaluation Without Borders, New Professional Scholarships, and Career Connections for ways that you can be active in the community!
Speak Up – I hope to encourage and foster an environment where members feel comfortable and invited to share their thoughts with the Board. I believe that everyone has a seat at the table, and I want to assure all voices are welcomed and heard by our Board members.
- If you have praises, questions, comments, or concerns to share with us, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at president@washingtonevaluators.org.
- If you have any idea for an event/speaker you would like to see on the schedule this year, we would love for you to share your ideas with the Program Committee at programs@washingtonevaluators.org.
- If you have a resource, event, or employment opportunity to share with WE members, please send them over to our Communications Committee at communications@washingtonevaluators.org.
Step Up – As a fully volunteer Board, we rely heavily on our volunteers to keep WE an exemplary local affiliate and professional evaluation association! We are all so grateful for the service of our amazing Board and the other volunteers who give their time and energy to support our activities.
- If you are interested in exploring volunteer opportunities, please fill out this Volunteer Interest Form.

There are many exciting things on the horizon, and I and our Board members are so thankful to have an organization that is thriving despite the challenges and tragedies our communities have faced in recent years. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you, and your resilience and dedication to this evaluation community is what makes Washington Evaluators such an incredible organization. Thank you for sharing your light, wisdom, knowledge, and (com)passion with each other. I look forward to seeing what 2022 has in store for us!

Sincerely,
Esther Nolton, PhD, MEd

2022 Washington Evaluators President
president@washingtonevaluators.org

Washington Evaluators 2021 Action Plan

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 22:52:27 GMT

The 2021 Board of Directors is pleased to share our 2021 Action Plan that reflects the organization’s priorities for this year. This plan came a bit later in the year as we were busy working on our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan and were committed to doing that in a participatory and inclusive way that we knew would take some time. Nonetheless, we knew some of the key commitments we were going to focus on in regards to diversity and inclusion and we used those to guide our 2021 actions.

The 2021 Action Plan outlines the Board’s commitment to greater access and diversity and identifies for each objective specific action steps. We will soon be sharing the end of year report to showcase how we have been putting this plan into action throughout the year.

We are excited to have continued our association’s strong tradition of promoting the field of evaluation in the Washington, D.C. area in 2021, and we thank our members for supporting and sustaining a strong community of local evaluators.

Regards,

Beeta Tahmassebi

2021 President

Washington Evaluators

Read the 2021 Action Plan

Call for Member Comments on Washington Evaluators' Draft 2021-2024 Strategic Plan

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:16:17 GMT

The 2021 Board of Directors is pleased to share Washington Evaluators’ draft Strategic Plan for 2021-2024. This plan outlines our guiding principles, goals and objectives for the organization for the years ahead. Before finalizing, we are opening up the plan for comments from our membership. Our board and our organization are here to support your needs and interests, and we hope that you will take the time to review this plan and provide us with your feedback. You can send any comments or suggestions to Patricia Moore Shaffer, our 2021 past-president, who has been spearheading this effort. You can reach Patricia at pastpresident@washingtonevaluators.org. You are also welcome to reach out to me at president@washingtonevaluators.org. The deadline for member comments is August 15, 2021.

We thank you for your active engagement in our community and look forward to all that we will accomplish together in the years ahead.

Best Regards,

Beeta Tahmassebi

2021 President, Washington Evaluators

Related Links

Draft 2021-2024 Strategic Plan

Planning Towards Equity: Integrating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Antiracism into Washington Evaluators (2021), a report by Paragon Education Consulting commissioned by the Washington Evaluators

A Letter from our 2021 President

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 14:16:08 GMT

Dear Washington Evaluators,

Happy New Year! As I begin my year as Washington Evaluators President, I would like to start by thanking Patricia Shaffer, WE’s 2020 President, as well as the 2020 Board of Directors and our committee members for an incredible year. 2020 was a challenge for us as it was for so many others. And yet, our board did an amazing job of pivoting us to a new online reality while still maintaining programming, communications, member services and community engagement activities. Please join me in thanking them for their hard work and commitment to our members.

As we look to 2021, we are still facing a great deal of uncertainty. We don’t know what the future holds. But the thing about uncertainty is that it is also an opportunity for innovation and exploration. So my goals for Washington Evaluators focus on supporting one another while also exploring our purpose and vision for the years ahead.

In this moment, Washington Evaluators is at a cross-roads. With the development of our new strategic plan in the coming months, we are being called to think critically about the past, re-commit to the values and activities that we want to carry forward, and find new ways of engaging and creating value for our membership and our community.

My greatest hope is that we will emerge from 2021 with a clear sense of purpose, a vision for the future and the confidence that this vision serves the needs of our membership and our community. To support these goals, we will focus on the following opportunities:

Developing the 2021-2024 strategic plan - In the early part of 2021, the WE board will develop a new strategic plan to guide the affiliate for 2021-2024. This gives us an incredible opportunity both to build on the strengths of our past, and to integrate feedback from our membership around their hopes and needs related to programming, outreach, community engagement and more.
Putting our Antiracism principles into practice – In 2021, with support from external consultants who are helping to gather feedback from members and applying a critical lens to our work, we look forward to furthering our commitments set forth in the Embodying Antiracism Principles and Practices in Evaluation statement.
Rising to the challenges and opportunities of our current reality – While we may not know what the future holds, we can be fairly certain that a lot of what we do in 2021 will happen online. This means we will be called to find new and compelling ways of engaging in programming, outreach, networking, mentorship, capacity building, volunteerism, partnerships and more.
Expanding and strengthening the ties of our networks – As we challenge ourselves to think in new ways and create a bold vision for the future, let’s also find more opportunities for engagement with others, for deep conversations, for reflection, and for building connections. I look forward to having a good time with all of you and am sure we can all use a bit of laughter and levity in the coming year!

As we look ahead, we are fortunate to have at the helm of WE an incredible board for 2021 (see flipgrid introductions here). Together, we are all excited to serve you, our members, and we are optimistic for the future. But we cannot do it alone. As in previous years, we will need your support to achieve our goals. You can help to create our vision for the future and build the community we want to be a part of. Here are just a few ways that you can help:

Encourage your organization to become a sponsor. For only $100 a year, your organization will be entitled to a number of memberships for staff. Perhaps one could be for you?
Encourage your colleagues to become members. It’s always more fun when you bring your friends along!
Keep an eye on the events page and engage in the upcoming strategic planning meetings and making sure the strategic plan of 2021-2024 is something we can all be proud of.
Let us know where you see opportunities for more progress on the embodiment of antiracism in our programming and practices. We want to hear your thoughts!
Send us your ideas for programs or networking events that you would love to attend. Chances are if it’s something you are interested in, then others would be interested too!
Send us links to articles, books or online resources you think our membership would be interested in.
Share job opportunities that might be appropriate for our membership. You next great hire could be a WE community member!
Spread the word about our expanded scholarship program for 2021. We want to reach more people this year than ever before.

Have any other ideas for how to help? Your 2021 Board and I are always available and interested in your ideas and involvement. Just email me at president@washingtonevaluators.org! Together we can make 2021 a year of positivity and growth for Washington Evaluators membership and our extended community.

Request for Proposals: DEI Consultant

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:01:53 GMT

Washington Evaluators is requesting proposals for a Consultant to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into WE's strategic planning process. Proposals are due Nov. 2, 2020.

Washington Evaluators serves the evaluation community by advocating for the growth of the evaluation profession and by fostering state-of the art knowledge and information sharing about evaluation practice. The organization’s current strategic plan, which covers operations from 2017-2020, includes four key strategic goals: strengthening the sustainability of the evaluation community; enhancing evaluation relationships and interactions; supporting individual evaluators' professional development needs; and ensuring strong administration of the organization.

As the organization begins to develop a new strategic plan for 2021-2024, and in light of WE’s 2020 commitments to integrating anti-racism into our programming, membership, community engagement, and communication activities, and administration/operations, the WE board wishes to engage a Consultant to solicit membership inputs on strategic priorities and the integration of a DEI lens to inform the organization’s 2021-2024 strategic plan.

Qualified candidates will be expert in designing and facilitating interactive and participatory online meetings using Zoom (or equivalent) technology; have experience with strategic planning at the organizational level; and have expert knowledge in DEI theories, practices, and standards and experience applying this knowledge in a professional setting. People of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and people with other marginalized identities are strongly encouraged to apply. Due to the virtual nature of this scope of work, we will consider qualified candidates living anywhere in the US; travel to the Washington, DC area is not required.

Volunteer for Washington Evaluators in 2021

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:56:18 GMT

Washington Evaluators is a 100% volunteer organization, and it is the committed work of our volunteer Board, committee members, mentors, and Evaluation Without Borders team members that allows our organization to offer a wide range of community services and member benefits, including Mentor Minutes, the New Professional Scholarship, and professional development and networking events.

Within the next month, we begin the process of recruiting our 2021 WE Board. Board nominations and elections will be announced soon for the Treasurer and President Elect positions. There are also opportunities to volunteer for committee chair positions that are appointed to the WE Board, including for Communications, Community Engagement, Membership, and Programs. Not interested in joining the Board but would still like to volunteer? Consider signing up as a volunteer for one of these committees.

Volunteering is a wonderful way to grow professionally, meet new friends, and expand your professional network. Join us at our August 19th Board meeting to learn more about our organization and to see how you might get involved.

Washington Evaluators 2020 Action Plan

Thu, 14 May 2020 11:18:19 GMT

The 2020 Board of Directors has published an Action Plan to guide the organization’s activities this year. In following the approval of the Washington Evaluators Strategic Plan for 2017-2020, this Action Plan outlines the Board’s commitment to achieving the broader objectives of the organization, ensuring that the association operates efficiently for the benefit of its dues-paying members and the broader evaluation community in the Washington, D.C. area.

The 2020 Action Plan identifies for each objective specific action steps, associated deadlines and milestones, and the responsible person or committee. At the end of this year, we will provide an update to our members, illustrating the progress we have made on these items.

It is appropriate to note that as the Board prepared this plan during March and April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, forcing the Board to consider how the organization connects and supports our community at a time when meeting in person is no longer possible. For this reason, activities and events discussed in this Action Plan may be virtual in format rather than in-person. What matters is that we continue to offer opportunities to nurture our community of practice and build capacity for public good.

We are excited to continue our association’s strong tradition of promoting the field of evaluation in the Washington, D.C. area in 2020, and we thank our members for supporting and sustaining a strong community of local evaluators.

Regards,

Patricia Moore Shaffer

2020 President

Washington Evaluators

Read the 2020 Action Plan here

Sign up to volunteer with a Washington Evaluator Committee

Introducing our 2020 New Professional Scholarship Recipients!

Fri, 08 May 2020 20:59:02 GMT

Washington Evaluators is devoted to strengthening and sustaining the evaluation community in the Washington DC area by recruiting and helping to educate the next generation of evaluators. Part of this year's Next Generation 2020 focus on students, the “New Professional Scholarship" supports new professionals in integrating state-of-the-art knowledge and information sharing into their evaluation practices and approaches within their respective organizations and/or future practice.

Washington Evaluators is pleased to announce our 2020 New Professional Scholarship recipients: Fanni Farago and Bryce Leary.

Fanni Farago is a first-year Sociology PhD student at George Mason University and a Research Assistant at the Center for Social Science Research. Prior to attending Mason, she obtained her Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Houston. Fanni is also a first-generation Hungarian-American immigrant with strong personal ties to her hometown, Budapest. This scholarship opens the door for her formal program evaluation training, which she will apply to advance a graduate student-run evaluation project for a local nonprofit.

Bryce Leary is from Falmouth, Maine, and received his BA in Political Science at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. He then spent two years in Senegal extending sustainable agricultural techniques as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Following this experience, Bryce joined the International Development Master's program at the School of International Service with a concentration in Evaluation and is graduating this May. Bryce is excited to use the New Professional Scholarship to jump-start his career and promote the evaluation community in Washington, DC.

As part of the scholarship, Fanni and Bryce will attend a course at The Evaluators' Institute (TEI) in July, and receive a complementary WE membership. To learn more about their career journey as evaluators, keep an eye out for their Member Spotlight, and to hear about their experience at TEI, be sure to join us at a WE board meeting this fall.

Evaluation in the Age of COVID

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:47:47 GMT

It was only two weeks ago that life was still normal, when going to work meant a commute on the Metro and a work day meant a day in the office among colleagues. Two weeks later, our world has profoundly changed. Our lives have become home-based, with our worklife (if we still have a job) becoming a string of video-conferences that distract us, at least momentarily, from the rising counts of COVID-19 cases we hear on the news. Heading out to the grocery store is now a major event, and the sound of coughing in a public space brings on a sense of dread.

In the midst of this chaos, many of us have also experienced uplifting moments of connection. My video-conferences during the past two weeks have been unusually intimate, often beginning with informal sharing of how we've been impacted by the pandemic and punctuated by the sounds of pets or children that give us insights into the personal lives of clients and colleagues. These digital connections make us all feel a bit closer to each other despite being physically apart. And this matters deeply during a time when the world we've known all our lives seems to be unraveling.

I was delighted to read Michael Quinn Patton's post, Evaluation Implications of the Coronavirus Global Health Pandemic Emergency, which helped me to reflect on the impacts of this crisis on our evaluation practice. He ends the article by challenging us to support each other as an evaluation community. "Buddy up. Stay connected to other evaluators. Participate actively in our professional networks and associations. . . . Think about what contributions you can make, as an evaluator, to mitigate the crisis."

To help us stay connected to each other, Washington Evaluators is offering to members a series of online discussions with thought leaders in our field during the next few months. Aly Lopez of the Center for Evaluation Innovation kicks off our series on April 8 with a discussion about how leaders can affect evaluation capacity building in foundations. On April 22, Donna Mertens discusses the role of transformative evaluation in international development. Michael Quinn Patton rounds out the series with his reflections on evaluation during the pandemic on May 6. Please join the discussion, connect with your peers, and reflect on our potential as leaders improving the world we live in.

I also encourage you to get involved in Evaluation Without Borders, which is currently recruiting evaluators and community-based organizations and nonprofits seeking program planning, measurement, and evaluation services. Perhaps there has been no greater time of need for nonprofits than now. Please share this opportunity with your network.

Next Generation 2020

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:03:34 GMT

The Washington Evaluators is devoted to strengthening and sustaining the evaluation community in the Washington DC area by recruiting and helping to educate the next generation of evaluators. Building on our theme of building capacity for public good, Washington Evaluators announces its Next Generation 2020 initiative to support students in the field of program evaluation. This month, WE launches the 2020 “New Professional Scholarship" competition. This scholarship is intended to support new professionals in integrating state-of-the-art knowledge and information sharing into their evaluation practices and approaches within their respective organizations and/or future practice. The Scholarship serves as one means to recruit new professionals into the evaluation community and facilitate continued diversity in the profession. The Scholarship is open to new professionals, currently enrolled students, postdocs and new graduates.

Later this month, students are encouraged to join WE for its first career-focused event for students: the DC SCEP - Washington Evaluators Graduate Student Career Fair and Networking Event. Held on Friday, March 27, at George Washington University, this career fair and networking event provides graduate students with an excellent opportunity to connect with DC-area employers hiring program evaluators. Employers confirmed to attend include Center for Global Health Engagement, EnCompass, Government Accountability Office, Guidehouse, Ipsos Public Affairs, IREX, Itad, Mercy Corps, and Millennium Challenge Corporation. This free event is co-sponsored by the George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, Washington Evaluators, and Mirror Group, LLC.

WE encourages our members to support local evaluation students and emerging evaluators by serving as mentors. Mentor Minutes is an initiative that pairs experienced evaluators (mentors) with aspiring, emerging, or seasoned evaluators (mentees) and establish mutually beneficial professional connections. Mentors can provide feedback regarding careers, reflect on their professional experiences, and help build the capacity and networks of emerging evaluators. Mentees, in contrast, will be able to glean insights from mentors regarding academic and professional pathways, technical advice, and general networking.

Thanks to the amazing group of WE Board and committee members and volunteers responsible for supporting students this year: Mindelyn Anderson, Emily Bango, Val Caracelli, Sue Cottrell, Danielle Gilmore, Bryce Leary, and Beeta Tahmassebi.

Evaluation Without Borders in 2020

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 01:08:58 GMT

WE began 2020 with a bold commitment to build the capacity of individuals and organizations to engage in evaluation. No other initiative better illustrates our organization's commitment to build capacity for public good than Evaluation Without Borders, which matches evaluators to non-profits and community-based organizations seeking program planning, measurement, and evaluation services.

In line with the goals of the American Evaluation Association, we hope to not only create opportunities where local nonprofits can build their knowledge and skills to engage in evaluation, but to also create opportunities where evaluators can provide useful services and meaningfully engage with communities across the Washington, D.C. area and beyond.

For participating nonprofits, Washington Evaluators builds a team of DC-based evaluators interested in providing pro bono services. Teams work together on projects that vary based on the needs and assets of each nonprofit and community-based organization. The timeframe of each project will vary; however, a memorandum of understanding will be developed to establish expectations between evaluation teams and clients. Projects are likely to include on-site training on various planning, measurement or evaluation topics for local staff; developing performance measures or data collection instruments; reviewing data sets; assisting with evaluation design; or, conducting an evaluation study. After each project has been completed, Washington Evaluators will follow up with evaluation teams and clients in order to learn how the program can continue to be improved.

Evaluation Without Borders relies on volunteers to make this initiative a success. For evaluators and members of Washington Evaluators interested in providing pro bono support to nonprofits and community-based organizations, please click here to access our pro bono evaluator interest form.

For nonprofits or community-based organizations interested in working with professional evaluators, please click here to access our client interest form.

Special thanks to Evaluation Without Borders coordinator Laura O'Brien and Community Engagement Chair Emily Bango for leading the initiative this year.

A Message from the 2020 WE President on Priorities

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 03:55:44 GMT

Happy New Year, Washington Evaluators members! As I begin my year as WE President, I would like to thank Giovanni Dazzo, WE’s 2019 President, as well as the 2019 Board of Directors and its committee members. This incredibly talented group of volunteers worked tirelessly last year to provide highly engaging activities and services for members, ranging from professional development programs to museum visits and mentoring experiences. We also officially launched our pro bono evaluation support program, Evaluation Without Borders. During 2019, Washington Evaluators experienced unparalleled growth, with our membership increasing to just shy of 400 members.

We begin 2020 with a very successful year behind us, and a most auspicious year ahead – the start of a new decade. Some of you may recall that six years ago, the American Evaluation Association (AEA) board embarked on a multi-year discussion to reimagine the association in 2020. AEA’s Ends Goals statements projected a forward-thinking vision for 2020 as to “how the organization, its members and society as a whole would be impacted if AEA were successful in all of its endeavors.” Rereading these Ends Goals in 2020, they hold up well – an aspirational vision for an evaluation community of practice in which:

- Members interact to promote high quality evaluation practice and professional leadership.

- Members benefit from professional affiliation, leadership opportunities, and inclusion within a diverse community.

- Members have the competencies needed to engage in high quality evaluation that is edifying, ethical, culturally and contextually responsive, useful, and that demonstrates scholarship.

- Student members have ample opportunities to develop the leadership skills and competencies needed to practice evaluation, contribute to the association, and the evaluation knowledge base.

- Evaluation contributes to increased public understanding of challenging issues and solutions.

As the organization’s president this year, my primary goal is to support Washington Evaluators’ continued growth as a community of practice that fulfills this vision. To that end, my priorities focus on two broad themes: 1) building capacity for public good, and 2) nurturing our community of practice.

Building capacity for public good. We begin 2020 with a bold commitment to building the capacity of individuals and organizations to engage in evaluation. The new Community Engagement committee is charged with overseeing initiatives that intentionally grow and sustain our evaluation community of practice and extend the reach of evaluation into the broader Washington, DC, community, and beyond. This committee will provide opportunities for members to develop through mentoring and to build capacity of local non-profits and community-based organizations through the continuing pro bono initiative, Evaluation Without Borders, which matches evaluators to non-profits and community-based organizations seeking program planning, measurement, and evaluation services.

Support for emerging evaluators is an important focus this year. This year, we will offer our New Professional Scholarship, which provides support to new evaluators interested in attending courses at The Evaluators’ Institute. WE will also engage our organizational sponsors in supporting a career fair for students. These activities help ensure a strong start for the next generation of evaluators in our community.

Nurturing our community of practice. The 2020 Board will proudly sustain community-building through professional development and networking activities. Members can build professional competencies by participating in a book discussion or attending a brown bag presentation, or expand their networks at a happy hour, or simply get to know their evaluation peers while touring a museum or visiting a local nonprofit on a field trip – whatever your motivation or interest for getting involved with Washington Evaluators, you’ll find programs that meet your needs. Watch for a members’ survey soon where you can provide input on the types of members-only programming and communications that you would like to see.

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WE is a 100% volunteer organization, and we benefit from strong partners that help us serve our community better. I’d like to recognize The Evaluators’ Institute, which provides a discount on course registration to Washington Evaluators members in addition to co-sponsoring events throughout the year; and The IBM Center for The Business of Government, which hosts Washington Evaluators presentations quarterly in their downtown D.C. offices. I’d also like to recognize our newest partner, SUNY/Center for International Development, who recently agreed to provide WE members a discount on its Adaptive Management Theory and Practice for International Development course and plans to co-sponsor a lecture event this March. A special thanks is also owed to our organizational sponsors – leaders in demonstrating support for evaluation in our region, and partnering with us on professional development and networking events.

Finally, I challenge our members to get actively involved in WE: join us at events, sign up as a volunteer or mentor, and participate in Board meetings and events. When I first joined WE in 2011, I began attending events hoping to learn more about my new field of practice. I found in WE more than I expected: opportunities to grow professionally, new friends, and, through my board involvement, a chance to grow and flex my leadership skills. Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to get more involved with WE in 2020 and become an active contributor to building our community of practice in the Washington, D.C. area.

Regards,

Patricia Moore Shaffer
2020 President
Washington Evaluators

2019 Annual Report

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:45:35 GMT

To read the 2019 Annual Report, please click here.

Dear Washington Evaluators Members:

On behalf of the 2019 Washington Evaluators (WE) Board of Directors, I would like to thank you all for your continued engagement as members, and your energy in supporting our mission to enhance our local evaluation community.

Before I continue my last message as President, I would like to thank the Board with whom I had the pleasure of serving alongside this year, including: President-Elect, Patricia Moore Shaffer; Treasurer, Beeta Tahmassebi; Secretary, Kevin Jones; Program Chair, Melissa Chiu; Membership Chair, Natalie Donahue; New Professional and Student Task Force Chair, Val Caracelli; Scholarship Task Force Chair, Tamarah Moss; Evaluators Without Borders Coordinator, Emily Eisenhauer; and, Mentor Minutes Coordinator, Emily Bango.

As I entered this year as WE President, I sought to promote two themes: (i) evaluation as community, and (ii) evaluators in the community. Throughout the year, the Board was interested in not only ensuring that members could learn from fellow evaluators, but that our members could meet on a more personal and engaged level.

This year, we truly saw the growth of our community, experiencing unparalleled growth with a net increase of 119 dues-paying members. This was the first time since WE began tracking dues-paying membership, that we reached over 100 new members in one year.

Throughout the year, we held our usual professional development events and social gatherings, continuing what we have done well in the past. However, we also organized museum visits, field trips, and book club style events that focused on issues of equity and inclusion, calling on evaluators to think critically (and evaluatively) on how their skills could be applied to question and confront today’s difficult and pressing problems. We also officially launched our pro bono evaluation support program, Evaluation Without Borders—stemming from our successful initiative during the 2017 AEA conference—which provided a space for members to offer hands-on support to advance the social justice missions of their pro bono clients, educate others about our discipline, and learn more about the important work done by non-profits and community-based organizations.

These are just a few of the achievements we saw in 2019, and I welcome you to review more of these successes, as well as areas for improvement, in our Annual Report.

As President, I hope that our activities helped you to more meaningfully engage with your fellow evaluators, but that they also spurred you to question how, as evaluators, we should think about how we can contribute to a more equitable and democratic society.

Warm regards,

Giovanni P. Dazzo

2019 WE Board President

WE Members to Participate at Evaluation 2019 in Minneapolis, MN

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 21:17:37 GMT

Members of Washington Evaluators will be participating in the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) fall conference, Evaluation 2019, in Minneapolis, DC from November 11-16. At least 78 WE members will join the conference as presenters, panel chairs, group leaders, and discussants.

A list of AEA sessions in which Washington Evaluators members are participating in any capacity is provided here. Please refer to the official AEA conference program for all final session dates and times.

If you are a Washington Evaluators member and your presentation is not listed here, please let us know by emailing at communications@washingtonevaluators.org.

Election Results

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 00:05:21 GMT

Thanks to all members who participated in the Washington Evaluators' annual election. Congratulations to Beeta Tahmassebi, elected as the 2020 President-Elect, and Melissa Chiu, elected as the 2020 Secretary.

The following amendments to the Washington Evaluators bylaws also passed:

WE Bylaws Amendment: Addition of a Community Engagement Chair to the Board.
WE Bylaws Amendment: Requiring nominees for President-Elect to serve on the Board for a total of nine months prior to seeking election as President-elect.
WE Bylaws Amendment: Addition of language stating the role and responsibilities of the appointed Community Engagement Committee.

Quarter 3 Update

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 22:30:00 GMT

In this quarterly update, I wanted to focus on several of the more quantitative targets and milestones the Washington Evaluators Board established earlier this year. This update provides a quick snapshot of our 2019 Action Plan, and our progress toward our objectives. If you are interested in seeing more of the 2019 Action Plan, you can access it on this page.

Each update below includes a specific objective in the Action Plan, along with a description of an activity associated with that objective.

Objective 1.4: Recruit and retain DC-based evaluators to support organizational sustainability.	Target	Actual
In 2019, Washington Evaluators will increase total membership to 315 members. Baseline: 279 (as of Jan. 1)	315	356

As a professional association, membership is at the core of our mission. This year, our Board established a strong focus on increasing our membership in an effort to grow and diversify our community. Based on previous figures, we established a target of a 12% increase. As can be seen, we surpassed this target, increasing membership by 28% as of September 30. We have continued to grow into this quarter as well. As of last week, membership has grown to 382 individuals; an increase of over 100 members, or 37%, in less than one year.

One of the areas that could be attributed to this increase is the emphasis placed on increased communication and meaningful engagement, as noted below.

Objective 2.1: Encourage increased communication and meaningful engagement between Washington Evaluators members about evaluation activities.	Target	Actual
At least five Deep Dive (book club style) events to read and discuss short written works on the current issues in the field of evaluation.	5	4
Objective 2.2: Facilitate networking and introductions of members.
At least six activity-based networking events during which social interaction is facilitated by a structured activity. Preferably, the activity is related to evaluation (e.g., museum exhibits on social issues, walking tour including information on life in a neighborhood) and allows for mobility (rather than sitting in an assigned seat)	6	6
Objective 3.1: Develop group opportunities for members and the DC evaluation community to develop professional skills.
At least two Field Trips to visit and learn about local programs (e.g., non-profits, local government) to support professional interaction with programs in different subject areas	2	2

This year, WE has organized nearly 30 events, including events co-sponsored with The Evaluators Institute and other evaluation affiliates. A few areas we wanted to focus on this year included the diversification of our events, including ways where members could discuss new methods and theories, social issues, and learn about local programs.

In addition to membership and events, we also wanted to professionalize our operations. This year, we started our election process early, calling for nominations in August and putting together a full slate of candidates in October. We have also included amendments to our bylaws, seeking to create a Community Engagement Committee, as well as a nine-month volunteer prerequisite for President-Elect candidates. This latter amendment was proposed as just one way to continue systematizing a leadership pipeline, ensuring that President-Elect candidates have experience in an area of Board operations before assuming their role.

To vote, please visit the online ballot by Monday, November 4.

Additionally, in order to more efficiently communicate directly with our members, we have also established dedicated email accounts for each Board member. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to email a Board member at any time.

Objective 4.2: Recruit and retain volunteers to support Washington Evaluators operations and continuity of leadership.	Target	Actual
Elections will be conducted on time, consistent with the Washington Evaluators by-laws, and with a full slate of nominees in October 2019 at the latest. In 2019, a call for new Board Members will be publicized in August 2019, to ensure sufficient time to gather a full slate of candidates.	October 2019	October 2019
Objective 4.3: Ensure the Board of Directors operates effectively and efficiently.
Create a branded email account, with dedicated accounts for various functions (e.g., general information, programs, communications). This email account will be established to further professionalize the association’s branding, as well as improve the efficiency of operations.	December 2019	August 2019

Next month, if you are attending the AEA conference, please feel free to stop by our co-hosted happy hour, along with other Eastern local affiliates. We hope to see you there or at one of our upcoming events later this fall.

Giovanni Dazzo
2019 President
Washington Evaluators

Quarter 2 Update

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 17:18:20 GMT

As we make our way through the summer, I wanted to provide another quarterly update for our members so all are aware of the activities and initiatives that have been organized so far this year. In this post, I wanted to highlight the progress the WE Board has made in working toward the two broad themes that we set this year: (1) evaluation as community, and (2) evaluation in the community.

Programming

This year, our Program Committee--led by Melissa Chiu--has organized 20 events. When we established our goals and priorities for the year, we sought to support a diverse, inclusive, and engaged evaluation community.

In our programming, we have tried to do this work by organizing events where members can broaden their knowledge of topics such as culturally responsive and equitable evaluation, as well as provoking discussion and debate on societal issues through a series of field trips and museum tours. Next month, we will be organizing a learning exchange with the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA), on the Made in Africa Evaluation agenda. We hope these events broaden your knowledge, expand your community, and provide opportunities to think about the evolving nature of our discipline.

Membership

This year, one indicator of success has been the rapid growth of our dues-paying membership base. From January to mid-July, we saw a 28% increase in the number of members, bringing our total membership to 350. We hope that our members appreciate the value that a $25 membership brings, including access to our mentorship initiative, pro bono evaluation program, weekly news digest, and over 20 events.

Governance

To continue promoting our focus on community engagement, the Board has plans to revise our Bylaws and add a new Board position: Community Engagement Chair. As an appointed Board position, this individual will be responsible for bringing some of our newer and exciting initiatives--such as our New Professional Scholarship, Mentor Minutes, and Evaluation Without Borders--under one organizational roof. The Board felt it necessary to create this position so we can continue strengthening our evaluation community and extending our reach into the broader Washington, D.C. community. As this requires a change in Bylaws, a ballot will be sent to all WE members.

Earlier this year, the Board also discussed how to diversify the composition of our WE Board. We asked ourselves whether Board membership is a good representation of our association. For instance, while Federal evaluators make up less than 25% of WE, they generally make up the majority of the Board. We asked how we could encourage student membership on the Board, as well as encouraging diversity with regard to professional background, experience, and demographics. As we make our call for 2020 Board members, please email us to let us know if you are interested, or provide your input on how the Board can better represent our professional association.

With that, I hope you've all had an excellent summer, and as always, we hope you're able to continue engaging with the fellow WE members and the broader community.

Giovanni Dazzo
2019 President
Washington Evaluators

Announcing the 2019 Washington Evaluators Action Plan

Thu, 02 May 2019 17:30:07 GMT

In following the approval of the Washington Evaluators Strategic Plan for 2017-2020, the 2019 Board of Directors has outlined an Action Plan to include a series of items to be implemented throughout this year. This Action Plan outlines the Board’s commitment to achieving the broader objectives of the organization, ensuring that the association operates efficiently for the benefit of its dues-paying members and the broader evaluation community in the Washington, D.C. area.

In this 2019 Action Plan, the Board has outlined specific action items (✓) and targets (❖), indicating how we intend to make progress toward each goal and objective. At the end of this year, we will provide an update to our members, illustrating the progress we have made on these items.

As I announced earlier this year, the Board will promote two broad themes in 2019—(1) evaluation as community, and (2) evaluation in the community—and we hope to achieve these through the efforts outlined in this Action Plan. This includes several initiatives, including: the incorporation of topics of equity and inclusion within events and communications; the addition of a new Community Engagement Committee, to properly establish and prioritize previous initiatives such as our New Professional and Student Task Force, Scholarship Task Force, and Mentor Minutes; the formalization of our pro bono initiative, Evaluation Without Borders; and, as always, ensuring the association’s financial sustainability and operational efficiency.

We are excited to continue our association’s strong tradition of promoting the field of evaluation in the Washington, D.C. area in 2019, and we thank our members for supporting and sustaining a strong community of local evaluators.

Regards,

Giovanni P. Dazzo

2019 President

Washington Evaluators

Read the 2019 Action Plan here

Celebrating our Long-Time Volunteers: WE Lifetime Membership

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 17:15:29 GMT

This month, we celebrate a number of holidays including Easter and Passover, but we also celebrate National Volunteer Month. As Washington Evaluators is a completely volunteer-run association (that’s right, Board and Committee members act in an unpaid capacity), I wanted to thank our current volunteers and Board members.

As our way to observe this month of volunteerism, the WE Board wanted to show our appreciation to those who have contributed their time in supporting our local affiliate throughout the years. During our Board meeting in March, we nominated two individuals for honorary Lifetime Membership. Lifetime Members have all privileges of regular membership but are exempted from paying dues.

By unanimous vote, we elected Dr. Valerie Caracelli and Dr. Kathryn Newcomer as Lifetime Members.

Val and Kathy have both been long-time volunteers and supporters of our local affiliate. Kathy served as President from 1995-1997, while Val served as President from 1997-1999.

In my experience on the Board, I was lucky to take over as Program Chair after Val, as she acted as a mentor to me and a number of other Board members. Val has served on the Board in a number of capacities for over 20 years, from President (1997-1999) to Program Chair (2014-2015). She currently leads our New Professional and Student Task Force, where she worked with WE’s University Ambassadors to establish the DC Consortium Student Conference on Evaluation & Policy. Due to Val’s strong record for professional service, she received the 2016 AEA Robert Ingle Service Award. On the AEA Board of Directors from 2007-2009, she served as liaison to the Ethics Committee and helped develop additional case study training materials on the Guiding Principles for Evaluators.

David Bernstein (former WE President) provided a statement on Kathy's record of professional service and mentorship: “Kathy was an inaugural WE University Ambassador and continues to serve in that capacity, ensuring that WE has an active and meaningful connection with future evaluators. As a mentor Kathy has consistently encouraged her students about the importance of volunteering in the evaluation community, and two of her former students have succeeded her as President of WE. As a Board member of the American Evaluation Association and as 2017 President, Kathy was a staunch advocate for AEA’s affiliate system. Her support of WE and other affiliates has strengthened the relationship between AEA and its affiliates, and WE has grown organizationally in large part due to her commitment”.

On behalf of our Board, I would just like to thank Val and Kathy again for their extensive records of service to our local affiliate, as it truly speaks to the importance of creating a community of evaluators.

Regards,

--Giovanni

Giovanni Dazzo
2019 President
Washington Evaluators

Quarter 1 Update

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:57:40 GMT

As many of us are accustomed to writing or reviewing quarterly reports for work, I thought this would be a nice opportunity to update fellow WE members on what the Board has been up to so far this year. As a professional association with dues-paying members, I also wanted to ensure that we’re not only accountable to our members, but that all members have a chance to learn more about the events, activities, or communications they may have missed.

Programming

Our Program Committee has done an excellent job curating events focusing on our two broad themes this year: (1) evaluation as community, and (2) evaluation in the community. I’ll speak briefly on both here. Last month, I had the opportunity to host several WE members at my home for dinner. Our Sine Qua Non dinners provide a great way to create a sense of community by sharing a meal and conversation with fellow WE members. Any member can host a Sine Qua Non dinner at their home or a neighborhood restaurant, so please reach out if you are interested.

Earlier this week, I attended a WE-sponsored field trip to Pathways to Housing DC. This is part of our priority to get evaluators out into the city so we can engage with the broader DC-area community. We had the opportunity to listen about the amazing work conducted by Pathways, as well as from two of their program participants. To share a bit for those who may have missed this event: Pathways seeks to provide home, health, and hope to more than 3,500 individuals who are homeless or at risk of homeless. They currently have a 91% housing retention rate. You can learn more about their evidence-based approach here.

Communications

We hope you are enjoying our members-only Weekly Digest and WEval Forum. If you have items (e.g., employment opportunities, interesting reads, events) you would like us to advertise, please email at any time. We’ve also increased our Twitter and LinkedIn presence, which you are hopefully finding informative. I would just like to note that we still do not have a Communications Chair, so our current Board members are doubling up on duties. If you would like to volunteer, please let us know (I promise it’s not too much work; I’ll even buy you a drink at the next happy hour).

Community Engagement

Earlier this year, we launched Evaluation Without Borders as a formal year-round programming option for members. We experienced a slow start in generating a client base, but I think this is an important note to make: as professional evaluators, we should strive to improve our connections in our communities. That said, after some targeted outreach, I’m glad to say that we were able to match nine pro bono clients with pro bono teams in our first round this year.

Additionally, our Mentor Minutes program has matched nearly ten individuals in the last few months. Mentor Minutes is set up for busy professionals, so please do not hesitate to sign up. Unlike other mentorship programs, you are only asked to meet two to three times to discuss a few discrete topics (connections can always continue after though). If you are interested in mentoring, sign up here as we’re always interested in increasing the number on our roster.

As WE members, we hope you’ve enjoyed the first quarter of 2019 and encourage you to attend events, volunteer, and meaningfully engage with fellow WE members and your broader community.

2019 Program Priorities and Event Updates

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:12:26 GMT

This year’s programming is intended to forward Giovanni's priorities as WE President of engaging evaluators meaningfully, particularly about issues of diversity and social justice, all while getting evaluators out into the city and their communities. We’re launching new types of professional development events, starting with our Deep Dive book club discussions, where evaluators read a short piece and then gather to discuss it. Sometimes the author will join us, as in our inaugural Deep Dive with Cheryl Abram, and others will be pure book club discussion. This event is designed to engage members more deeply with each other as well as with the latest in evaluation thought.

Another new event type we’re launching this year are Field Trips. Remember these from school? Field trips were educational yet fun and got us out into the world. Similarly, with WE’s professional Field Trips, we will learn about interesting programs around the metro area, starting with Pathways DC, a housing program. While we will not be evaluating any of these programs during our visits, Field Trips also present opportunities to promote WE’s Evaluation Without Borders program. Finally, as in previous years, we will continue to hold seminars to provide information on a variety of evaluation topics. However, this year we will highlight subjects that often receive less attention, such as teaching evaluation and environmental evaluation. All together, the variety of professional events will provide many opportunities for WE members to deepen their knowledge and grow professionally.

As for social activities and networking, we will continue to provide networking opportunities in a relaxed bar or restaurant environment. This year, however, we are holding multiple activity-based networking events, where evaluators participate in an activity followed by networking in a relaxed setting. Some activities may provide food for thought on evaluation issues, while others will be just plain fun. Look out for tours of museum exhibits relating to social issues, walking tours of neighborhoods, a knowledge-brokering game night, sport-spectating events, and our very first dragon boat race team!

We’re hoping members enjoy this year’s line-up of WE events and find them meaningful and engaging. If you have feedback on any of our events, please let us know. Also, we’re open to new ideas for WE events, so if you are interested in learning about something, giving a talk or getting feedback, or any activity at all, please let us know at washeval@gmail.com.

Melissa Chiu is the 2019 Chair of WE's Program Committee

Formally launching Evaluation Without Borders

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:05:12 GMT

Fellow WE members:

This week, as we celebrate the work and achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington Evaluators is pleased to formally launch its pro bono evaluation program: Evaluation Without Borders (EWB). As MLK Day--and the rest of this week--is often seen as a time to serve our communities, we would like to encourage our members to think of ways they can give back to the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The greater metropolitan area has an extensive network of non-profits and community-based organizations. However, after speaking to a number of organizations, we have found that while many are interested in program planning, measurement, and evaluation services, few have the resources to undertake such efforts. Additionally, for those without exposure to professional evaluation services, there is general anxiety surrounding the idea of starting a project, not asking the right questions, or simply paying for services that may not be utilized. Through EWB, we hope that our members will not only be giving back, but improving the capacity of organizations to engage in evaluation; in turn, promoting its demand and use.

Through this initiative, we would also like to provide our members with additional opportunities to engage with those outside the evaluation profession. Historically, WE members have worked tirelessly to promote evaluation, and influence evaluation policy and practice through their work with the Evaluation Policy Task Force and EvalAction. To complement these efforts, we would like to ensure that we are promoting our field by working closely with local communities as well. We anticipate the combination of these initiatives will provide the coverage needed to influence evaluation policy and practice with institutional actors and grassroots movements alike.

As mentioned in our first message of the year, if you are interested in sharing your skills, we encourage you to complete our pro bono evaluator form. Evaluators will be grouped into teams, matched with clients, and provided a Memorandum of Understanding to set evaluator and client expectations. This is also a great opportunity for members to join a pro bono team and learn from evaluators with diverse skills. And, if you know of an organization interested in pro bono support, please refer them to our client interest form.

Through EWB, we hope you find it to be an excellent opportunity to learn from clients and other evaluators, give back to the broader Washington, D.C. area, and continue to build our local evaluation community.

Regards,
Giovanni

Giovanni Dazzo
2019 President
Washington Evaluators

A Message from the 2019 WE President on Goals and Priorities

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 17:39:12 GMT

Happy New Year, Washington Evaluators members! As I begin my year as WE President, I would like to thank Stephanie Cabell, WE’s President in 2018, as well as the 2018 Board of Directors and its committee members. Each year, our dedicated volunteers spend countless hours managing the day-to-day operations of the organization. As we start this year, I welcome you to review our history as a professional association—noting not only our accomplishments but encouraging you to send us your ideas on how we can continue to improve.

I would now like to turn my attention to my priorities as WE’s 2019 President, focusing on two broad themes: (1) evaluation as community, and (2) evaluation in the community.

These priorities highlight a continued focus on increasing our membership base, improving the efficiency of our operations, and enhancing pipelines for local leadership. As a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), I would like to advocate that we strive to reach the goals set by AEA, especially those calling on us to establish a “diverse community of professionals”, and to develop the “capacity of communities and organizations to engage in evaluation” (AEA Mission, Vision, Values and Governing Policies, 2016).

Sustaining membership services and supporting diversity, inclusion, and engagement within our evaluation community. We have a strong tradition of offering professional development and social events for the evaluation community in the Washington, D.C area. In addition to continuing these events, this year, WE will also focus on programming that is of interest to emerging evaluators. Additionally, we will be revamping our New Professional Scholarship to provide support to new evaluators interested in attending courses at The Evaluators’ Institute. This helps us to ensure that WE continues to lay the groundwork for the next generation in our community.

Planning a variety of events and initiatives, however, does not, in itself, ensure meaningful inclusion and engagement. In line with the Dialogue on Race and Class in America—which was co-sponsored by AEA, WE, and the Trachtenberg School at George Washington University in 2017—the WE Board will be continuing this discussion during our planning processes. By taking intentional steps to reflect on questions of identity and power, I hope we can address issues of race, gender, and class in all aspects of our operations, from programming to communications to scholarships.

In the coming months, we will also be distributing a membership engagement survey where you can provide input on the types of members-only programming and communications that you would like to see. As an immediate step, please visit your member profile page to select your interests and the AEA topical interest groups to which you belong (after logging in to the website, click on your name, View Profile, and then Edit Profile). This information will aid us in our efforts to organize events that draw on our members’ interests. This also assists members in finding peers in the Member Directory, and allows the Board to efficiently match mentors and mentees for our ongoing Mentor Minutes program. After assessing the state of Mentor Minutes, we will be refining this members-only program, with new volunteers and increased communication with those interested in participating.

To create connections between our professional association and other communities of practice, we will be coordinating with AEA Topical Interest Groups to advertise events and communications to members and non-members in the region. We are in the process of increasing our engagement with other local affiliates and voluntary organizations for professional evaluation based in the United States and abroad, through joint programming and virtual peer-to-peer exchanges.

That said, while these efforts assist us in broadening our community of practice, we must also meaningfully connect with our more immediate neighborhoods and communities. As a professional association, the Board aims to not only guarantee the sustainability of our association, but to ensure that those outside our community of practice understand and value what we do.

Ensuring our membership is engaged in the broader Washington, D.C. community. In addition to our regular programming (e.g., brown bags, happy hours, sine qua non dinners), you will notice that this year, our social events will mirror the programming that we undertook in 2017 and during the 2017 AEA annual conference. Every four years, our Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG) curates events around the city for those visiting for the AEA conference. By taking advantage of our existing Program Committee and LAWG infrastructure, we aim to increase the number and variety of events offered to members. Activities will include group visits to museums such as the Renwick Gallery, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Anacostia Community Museum; institutions such as NPR and other cultural venues; and, gatherings at baseball games and outdoor events. We hope members find these events to be intellectually and culturally stimulating, as well as a way to engage with fellow evaluators by exploring the Washington, D.C. area.

We will also draw on the success of our previous pro bono initiative, Evaluation Without Borders, which matches evaluators to non-profits and community-based organizations seeking program planning, measurement, and evaluation services. After WE piloted this initiative during Eval2017, we spent last year establishing the operational foundation to offer this as a permanent programming option. We will officially launch our EWB program during the week of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, to commemorate his legacy of civic engagement and community service. If you are interested in sharing your skills, we encourage you to complete our pro bono evaluator form, as we will be matching volunteers soon. If you know of an organization interested in pro bono support, please refer them to our client interest form.

As we start another year, I encourage you to provide feedback to the Board, sign up as a volunteer or mentor, and participate in Board meetings and events. I hope this year brings you the opportunity to not only engage with our community of practice, but to also see how evaluators can promote the public good in the Washington, D.C. area.

Regards,
Giovanni

Giovanni Dazzo
2019 President
Washington Evaluators

Washington Evaluators Members

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 20:23:28 GMT

Washington Evaluators members will be well represented, not only as attendees, but also as presenters in this year's American Evaluation Association fall conference in Cleveland, OH. At least 59 Washington Evaluators members will participate as presenters, panel chairs, group leaders, in poster sessions, and as discussants in at least 124 sessions. Congratulations to all!

A list of Washington Evaluators members participating in AEA sessions in any capacity is provided below (as of Oct. 5, 2018). Please refer to the official program at www.eval.org for all final session dates and times.

Michelle Abraczinskas:

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - YFE3: Youth Speaking Truth To Power

Joy Amulya:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1645: Winning the war on state-sponsored propaganda: Results from an impact evaluation of a Ukrainian news media and information literacy program

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 1659: Using Evaluation to Inform the Design of Program Networks for Societal Change

Saturday Concurrents 10:15am-11:00am - 1989: Democratizing evaluation: Whose Questions? Whose Data? Whose Learning?

Stephen Axelrad:

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 1248: Building Collaborative Evaluations from Stakeholder Analysis

TIG Business Meetings - TIGBM37: Military and Veteran Evaluations TIG Business Meeting

Denise Baer:

Wednesday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:30pm - 2702:"Capacity To" Collaboration Tool for Assessing Partnership and Coalition "democratic" Governance for Advocacy and Policy Reform

Saturday Concurrents 9:15am-10:00am - DG2: Parliaments, Policy and Monitoring and Evaluation

Gail Barrington:

Pre-Conference Workshop - One Day (Wed) - 46: (46) Intermediate Consulting Skills

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1518: AEA's Evaluator Competencies-- what can we learn from other Evaluation societies about next steps?

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - 1247: What Happens Afterwards? Ways to De-brief with Clients

Post-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Sat PM) - 64: (64) Consulting After 50: Career Transition Issues

Alemayehu Bekele:

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2431: GEDI 14: Building emerging CRE Practitioners and Scholars

Heather Britt:

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1906: Systems Approaches for Organizational Development

Thursday Concurrents 1:45pm-2:30pm - 1936: Principles-Focused Evaluation for Robust M&E Frameworks: Examples from countering violent extremism

TIG Business Meetings - TIGBM54: Systems in Evaluation TIG Business Meeting

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - 1186: Applying Principles for the Effective Use of Systems Thinking and Complexity Science in Evaluation

Adalei Broers:

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 2695: Five Organizations and One MEL System: Successes and Challenges

Kerry Bruce:

Pre-Conference Workshop - One Day (Wed) - 19: (19) Big data and evaluation

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 2395: How can MEL Tools lead Adaptive Management?

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 2193: When Many Choices are Good Choices: Considerations in Qualitative Data Analysis Software Platforms Through a Discussion of MAXQDA, NVivo, and Dedoose

David Bernstein:

Wednesday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:30pm - DUP1: Power to Succeed: Exploring Employment and Living Outcomes for People with Disabilities

Friday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1187:35 Years of Evaluation Learning in 5 Minutes

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - 1113: Monitoring and Evaluating Inclusive Program Practices

Val Caracelli:

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - 2391: Speaking Truth to Power When Power Isn’t Listening: The Current Challenges of Evaluation Influence

Ratiba Cherif:

Friday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:15pm - 2639: The OL-ECB Information Commons: Guidelines for Selecting and Curating Content

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 2307: Harnessing creativity for evaluation

Cynthia Clapp-Wincek:

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1643: Roundtable Discussion of International VOPE and AEA Efforts in Evaluation Policy Development and Advocacy

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - 1667: Update on AEA's Role in EvalPartners and the International Organization on Cooperation in Evaluation

Susan Cottrell:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM) - 56: (56) Using Surveys and Brainstoming Tools to Empower Staff

Katherine Dawes:

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 1045: Learning from failure: Speaking truth to each other

Giovanni Dazzo:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 2092: Evaluating Visually: Translating raw data to stunning visual communications to facilitate uptake of evaluation information

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1382: Whose Stories Matter?: Using Secondary Analysis and Meta-monitoring to Explore Power and Values in the ‘Most Significant Change’ Process

Thursday Concurrents 1:45pm-2:30pm - 1841: Words matter. Managing power dynamics across stakeholders to ensure participation during evaluation and use of evidence.

Jennifer Dewey:

TIG Business Meetings - TIGBM5: Business, Leadership, and Performance TIG Business Meeting

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - BLP2: Towards a General Theory of Monitoring and Evaluation

Danuta Dobosz:

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1694: Teaching Qualitative Methods in Evaluation Online: Instructor and Student Perspectives

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - DG1: Evidence-Based Programs and Evaluating Democracy

Ann Doucette:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM) - 50: (50) Measurement: How precise are the finding of my evaluation??

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 2776: Practitioner Challenges and Successes when Speaking Truth: Cases from Various Stages in an Evaluation

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 1427: Giving an active voice to respondents through effective survey design

Diana Epstein:

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2502: Executive and Legislative Perspectives on Federal Evaluation Policy

Lynne Franco:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM) - 55: (55) Enhancing the truth in triangulation: Approaches to Data Analysis and Interpretation

Thursday Concurrents 1:45pm-2:30pm - 1841: Words matter. Managing power dynamics across stakeholders to ensure participation during evaluation and use of evidence.

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - 1504:The Pathway to High Effective Coverage at Scale-a framework for enhancing truth in program strategy, monitoring and evaluation

Rebecca Frazier:

Friday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 2679: How to Use a “Bundled” Evaluation Methodology to Speak Truth to Power

Sierra Frischknecht:

Thursday Concurrents 2:45pm-3:30pm - 2762: How to Make Evaluating in Transition a Joint Initiative

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 2167: Capturing Leadership Outcomes with Most Significant Change

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 2536: Networks of International Leadership Development Programs: Who has the power and why do we care?

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - HPEER2: Intro to HPEER Part 2: Conducting Evaluation Work in the Healthcare Environment

Saturday Concurrents 9:15am-10:00am - 2519:A new look for greater use: visual reporting at MCC

Alejandra Garcia Diaz Villamil:

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - ICCE4: Cultural Competency and Sense Making in International Evaluation

Saturday Concurrents 11:15am-12:00pm - FIE1: The Power of Evidence in Gender Equality Evaluations

Nick Hart:

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 3062: AEA Evaluation Policy Task Force (EPTF) Update

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1025: Promoting Evidence-Building Capacity for Learning in Government

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2502: Executive and Legislative Perspectives on Federal Evaluation Policy

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1643: Roundtable: Updating AEA's "Evaluation Roadmap for a More Effective Government"

Friday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm (Presidential Strand) -2701: Power to Truth = Evidence: Establishing a Culture of Evaluation for Evidence-Based Decisions and Policymaking

Kelva Hunger:

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - 2779: Investigating and Measuring Burnout among Program Evaluators

Mary Hyde:

Friday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:15pm - 1843: Using Evidence to Scale-Up Community Based Solutions That Work – A Federal Agency’s Framework and Approach

Jonathan Jones:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 2092: Evaluating Visually: Translating raw data to stunning visual communications to facilitate uptake of evaluation information

Thursday Concurrents 1:45pm-2:30pm - 1841: Words matter. Managing power dynamics across stakeholders to ensure participation during evaluation and use of evidence.

Akashi Kaul:

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - MIE1: Culturally Responsive Strategies for Addressing the Elephants in the Room: Race and Power

Jackie Kaye:

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - 1813: Measuring the Health of Social Movements: Exploring questions of power, truth and speaking

Kirk Knestis:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM) - 48: (48) Overcoming Traditional Weaknesses of Logic Models with a Novel "Condition Modeling" Approach

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 1303: Game Changers: Lessons from Small Evaluation Firms

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1455: Gun violence in the US: What if it’s a data problem before it’s a “gun problem” or “people problem?”

Anne Laesecke:

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 2167: Capturing Leadership Outcomes with Most Significant Change

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 2536: Networks of International Leadership Development Programs: Who has the power and why do we care?

Steven Lize:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 3061: Innovative Efforts in State-Level Evaluation Policy and Practice

Alissa Marchant:

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 2219: Find your niche: Using evaluation to improve business communications

McDonald, Sarah-Kay:

Friday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm (Presidential Strand) - 2701: Power to Truth = Evidence: Establishing a Culture of Evaluation for Evidence-Based Decisions and Policymaking

Donna Mertens:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Two Day (Mon/Tues) - 01: (01) Eval 101

Birds of a Feather - 1229: Intersecting transformative evaluation and social impact investing

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm (Presidential Strand) - 1111: Challenging and re-framing truth and power in evaluation

Post-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Sat PM) - 59: (59) Mixed Methods Design in Evaluation

Patricia Moore Shaffer:

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2286: Arts Education Collective Impact Initiatives: Meeting the Challenge of Shared Measurement across Sites

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - PD1: Exploring Approaches to Program Design: Finding Voice and Reconciling Truths

Susan Morawetz:

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2582: Fighting Famines

Ian David Moss:

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1571: Embedding Evaluation in the Decision-Making Process

Ioana Munteanu:

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - GE3: Strengthening Government Performance Through Evaluations

Erin Murrock:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1645: Winning the war on state-sponsored propaganda: Results from an impact evaluation of a Ukrainian news media and information literacy program

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 1659: Using Evaluation to Inform the Design of Program Networks for Societal Change

Kathryn Newcomer:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1025: Promoting Evidence-Building Capacity for Learning in Government

Cheryl Oros:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 1877: Applying theory-driven approach in evaluating the planning and implementation of a school-based telemedicine program in rural Georgia

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1211: Using Theory-Driven Approach to Assess Unintended Effects

Friday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1003: Introduction to Evaluation and Policy

William Pate:

Friday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:15pm - CMME1: Managing Site Specifics in Multisite Evaluation

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 3064: Good Data, Bad Data

Julia Rollison:

Wednesday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:30pm - 1594: Moving Beyond Document Storage: Using SharePoint to More Effectively Manage Evaluations

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1597: Using SharePoint to Track and Present Data for Process and Outcome Evaluations

Katelyn Sedelmyer:

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - CPPE5: Learning from Community Evaluations: Theory and Practice

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - OLECB1: ECB in Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations

Godfrey Senkaba:

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1852: Working with Assumptions: Understanding how Evaluators Make Decisions about Capturing Reality/Context

Jacqueline Singh:

Friday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1285: Who has Power in Higher Education? Deeper Thinking About Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Kelly Skeith:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 1815: Understanding Rights-based Politics: Using Applied Political Economy Analysis to Guide Human Rights Programming

Thursday Concurrents 3:45pm-4:45pm - 2439: Risky Business: Evaluation in High-Risk Political Environments

Thursday Concurrents 5:00pm-5:45pm - 2695: Five Organizations and One MEL System: Successes and Challenges

TIG Business Meetings - TIGBM14: Democracy and Governance TIG Business Meeting

Juna Snow:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 1639: Is evaluator-focused meta-evaluation occurring or just theorized?

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 2776: Practitioner Challenges and Successes when Speaking Truth: Cases from Various Stages in an Evaluation

TIG Business Meetings - TIGBM6: Cluster, Multi-site and Multi-level Evaluation TIG Business Meeting

Friday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:15pm - CMME1: Managing Site Specifics in Multisite Evaluation

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - GE1: A Closer Look at Telework in the Federal Environment

Sarya Sok:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 1382: Whose Stories Matter?: Using Secondary Analysis and Meta-monitoring to Explore Power and Values in the ‘Most Significant Change’ Process

Linda Stern:

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 1978: Speaking Many Truths to Power: re-appropriating mobile ethnography for evaluative case studies.

Friday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am - 1707: Speaking Truth to Political Power: Lessons from International Democracy Assistance Evaluations

Beeta Tahmassebi:

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 2179: The Art of Crafting a Successful Engagement – How to balance the power dynamics between funders and consultants to ensure evaluation success

Friday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm - 2161: Grassroots or Grasstops? Measuring the Effectiveness of Advocacy Strategies

Brandie Taylor:

Poster Reception and Meet-the-Authors - 2013: Assessment of the Centers for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Design at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Organizational Learning & Evaluation Capacity Building - 1996: Evaluation Training Needs Assessment at the National Institute of Allergy and Infecti cous Diseases

Research, Technology & Development Evaluation - 2022: Process and Outcome Evaluation of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm - GE1: A Closer Look at Telework in the Federal Environment

Juha Uitto:

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - 1816: Lessons from applying Rapid Impact Evaluation

Dana Wanzer:

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - RE1: Contextual issues in evaluation practice

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am - DVR1: Research on Data Visualization

Asia Williams:

Thursday Concurrents 2:45pm-3:30pm - CD2: Effectiveness of skill-building and self-sufficiency initiatives: Results from two recent studies

Friday Concurrents 5:45pm-6:45pm - MIE1:Culturally Responsive Strategies for Addressing the Elephants in the Room: Race and Power

Saturday Concurrents 10:15am-11:00am - 2750: Catalysts of Change: Out-of-School Time STEM Programs for Underrepresented Youth

Brian Yates:

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM) - 45: (45) Adding Costs to Make Your Evaluation More Impactful (and Better Used): Using Cost-Effectiveness, Cost-Benefit, Cost-Utility Analyses for Health and Human Services

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 1154: Seeking and Speaking Truths in Terms that Power Understands: Problems and Solutions in Cost-Inclusive Evaluation

Lily Zandniapour:

Friday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:15pm - 1843: Using Evidence to Scale-Up Community Based Solutions That Work – A Federal Agency’s Framework and Approach

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:30pm - 2442: Maximizing Evaluation Use: Examples from Social Innovation Fund Intermediary Funders

A Message from the WE President on 2018 Goals and Priorities

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:43:50 GMT

Dear Colleagues:

As I said in my 2018 New Year’s greeting, I am excited to engage with Washington Evaluators (WE) members and the larger DC evaluation community over the next year as we continue to highlight evaluation’s critical role to inform decision-making in all sectors and levels of government. In particular, I look forward to working with WE’s 2018 Board of Directors and committee/task force chairs on the many initiatives that support the promotion of evaluation as a profession and that seek to improve evaluation practices and increase routine use of evaluation and evidence.

As is WE’s tradition, I want to take this opportunity to share my priorities over this next year as WE’s 2018 President:

Promoting the Field of Evaluation Locally and Nationally – AEA and its affiliates recognize that evaluation is an essential function of government. Given WE’s proximity to a large federal workforce and three state governments, WE will partner with agencies to continue the focus on the Commission on Evidence-based Policymaking’s recommendations to improve evidence-building capacity in government and non-government agencies. We will periodically shed light on EvalAction 2017 by sharing ideas on ways to stay engaged in discussing the value of evaluation in government. And we are laying the groundwork to expand WE’s successful Evaluation Without Borders initiative for WE members to meaningfully connect and give back to the Washington, DC community.

Supporting WE Operations Through Our Members: Organizational Sponsors – Our members are the lifeblood of Washington Evaluators. As such, we will actively seek opportunities to meaningfully engage our members, starting with our newest membership category—Organizational Sponsors. A priority of WE is to ensure our members find value in their membership, so we will partner with different sectors of our membership to create professional development and networking events for members to learn from and interact with one another.

Strengthening the Sustainability of the Evaluation Community – The board is working with the points of contact for its major initiatives targeted at new and young professionals in the evaluation discipline. We are working with our New Professionals Scholarship, University Ambassadors, and Student Conference Taskforce chairs to grow efforts devoted to support the next generation of professional evaluators, and look for synergies among these initiatives. For starters, WE members can look forward to a brown bag event to meet and hear from the three recipients of WE’s 2017 New Professionals Scholarship.

Volunteer Engagement & Recognition – A central focus will be a continuation of the rich menu of opportunities for WE members to make an impact through professional development, mentoring, access to job listings and evaluation-related events, and leadership opportunities locally and nationally with AEA, etc. We will continue the tradition started by Past President Nick Hart of recognizing individuals for contributions to WE and to the DC evaluation community at large, and will develop and grow organizational leadership pipelines on WE committees and taskforces.

American Evaluation Associates Affiliates – Last, but certainly not least, as one of 30+ AEA affiliates, through WE’s representative to the AEA-Local Affiliates Collaborative (AEA-LAC) we will work with other affiliates to develop and implement actions that affiliates and the parent organization, AEA, can take to mutually support one another.

In the immediate future, we will be updating our Action Plan to make available to you this Spring. We hope it will be a reflection of WE’s efforts to be of service to our members and fellow evaluators by providing avenues to attend events, network with colleagues in the field, address critical topics like building evidence-capacity, and share expertise by volunteering. We look forward to this next year with you, and invite you to stay in touch by dropping us a line at washingtonevaluators@gmail.org.

Regards,

Stephanie Cabell

A New Year’s Day Greeting from Washington Evaluators

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 18:48:43 GMT

Dear Fellow WE Members –

I am excited to be starting 2018 as President of Washington Evaluators. It is a great honor to take over the helm as president and I thank the Board, WE’s past president Nick Hart for his leadership and ongoing support, and all of you for this opportunity.

As Nick said in his 2017 closing message to all of us, 2017 was indeed a fantastic year for evaluation in the Washington, DC, area. Whether at the local, state or national level, Washington Evaluators was at the forefront of key discussions in the discipline and proud to be an actor in this dynamic environment. Our members reflect that dynamism through their engagement in their organizations and externally in any number of realms. I look forward to soon sharing our goals and priorities for 2018 with all of you. We will continue with many of initiatives detailed in WE’s strategic plan and will build upon our accomplishments of 2017, not the least of which is increasing the opportunities for WE members to meaningfully engage with fellow evaluators.

For now, on behalf of the board of Washington Evaluators: “Best wishes to all in the New Year.”

Stephanie Cabell

2017: A Successful Year of Strengthening the DC Evaluation Community

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 21:19:03 GMT

As 2017 comes to a close, our profession has much to celebrate. 2017 was a fantastic year for the evaluation field in Washington, DC.

At the outset of 2017 when my term as president of Washington Evaluators began, I outlined three of my overarching priorities for the organization this year: to strengthen the national evaluation community, enhance our organizational services, and to improve our infrastructure for the sustainability of Washington Evaluators. We made tremendous progress in addressing each of these three priorities throughout the year.

I am proud of all that the Board and volunteer members of Washington Evaluators were able to accomplish in just 12 short months. Thank you to all of the volunteers who supported Washington Evaluators activities this year. As we reflect on the past year, I want to briefly highlight several accomplishments of our organization in 2017.

Strengthening the National Evaluation Community

Throughout the year Washington Evaluators partnered with numerous organizations to host events and dialogues to advance evaluation practice, and strengthen the interactions between evaluators not just here in DC but from around the country.

Early this year Washington Evaluators co-sponsored a dialogue for our field to discuss the role of race and class in evaluation. The event, co-sponsored with the American Evaluation Association and George Washington University, was the first of four sessions that ended with a capstone plenary at the fall AEA conference here in Washington.

Washington Evaluators also partnered with The Evaluators Institute to co-sponsor two separate events for evaluators from around the country to learn about how political transitions affect the field of evaluation and to discuss emerging issues that affect the demand for evaluation in our country.

In September, following the release of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking's report, Washington Evaluators partnered with AEA, George Washington University, and the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis to sponsor an event for dialogue about how to proceed in implementing the Commission's recommendations. The event attracted more than 150 attendees including individuals from fields that partner with evaluators to begin a discussion that continues today about next steps for improving the entire evidence-building community.

In November, Washington Evaluators' volunteers led excellent initiatives during the fall AEA #Eval17 conference, and more than one-third of our membership participated in panels. Brian Yoder's leadership in EvalAction, an initiative conducted in partnership with AEA's Evaluation Policy Task Force, led to more than 100 evaluators volunteering to visit with congressional staff and Congressmen to discuss the field of evaluation this fall. Giovanni Dazzo and Jonathan Jones co-chaired the Local Arrangements Working Group in preparation for the fall AEA conference, and did a tremendous job launching new initiatives such as the Evaluation without Borders effort to encourage evaluators to give back to the community during the conference. And Washington Evaluators members contributed $600 to support five graduate students from around the country participating in the #Eval17 conference.

Each of these events and contributions made substantial in-roads to strengthening the evaluation profession not just here in DC, but by demonstrating the value of evaluation and future directions for evaluation across the country.

Enhancing Evaluation Services and Benefits in DC

While Washington Evaluators this year exhibited leadership for evaluators across the country, our volunteers also designed and led numerous efforts to enhance the benefits of membership for our local evaluators right here in Washington, DC.

As Washington Evaluators revamped its communications efforts under the leadership of Patricia Shaffer, our members received improved weekly digests with job announcements and opportunities for events around the city.

Our program committee, led by Giovanni Dazzo, coordinated ten professional development events ranging from discussions with the Government Accountability Office to former AEA president Rodney Hopson. Many of these events were made available to members through new virtual participation options.

The program committee also sought out new opportunities for evaluators to productively network with each other at social events, including Washington Evaluators' first event at Nationals Park, and our membership committee chaired by Robin Kelley hosted its second members-only meet and greet.

Washington Evaluators launched a new short-term mentoring program to better meet the needs of our members, led by Nick Zyznieuski. Nearly a dozen of our members participated in the program as mentees this year and we expect the initiative to grow further in coming years.

In the spirit of giving back to the community, under the leadership of Tamarah Moss, Washington Evaluators launched a New Professional Scholarship initiative that brought three professionals from local non-profits into the evaluation community to improve their organizations.

Washington Evaluators co-sponsored the first DC Consortium Student Conference on Evaluation and Policy, and convened a social event for students and members to interact during the conference. Thanks to the leadership of Student and New Professional Task Force chair Val Caracelli and many of the Washington Evaluators University Ambassadors who made the effort possible.

Finally, recognizing that DC is a large city and sometimes events may be difficult to attend downtown during the workday to interact with fellow evaluators, this year Washington Evaluators hosted the Sine Qua Non dinner series, where we made an effort to connect evaluators to those who live and work in close proximity to each other. Throughout the year, Washington Evaluators volunteers hosted nine dinners attended by dozens of members to discuss their work, the state of the evaluation profession, and suggestions for the DC evaluation community.

We hope that all Washington Evaluators members personally experienced many of the specific benefits of membership throughout the year by attending an event or participating in one of the many activities available to members.

Reinforcing Organizational Infrastructure

While the business matters of Washington Evaluators are rarely the most exciting for many members -- there are many encouraging actions undertaken this year that will hopefully shape the future direction of the organization for years to come.

The Board developed a robust, long-term strategic plan, and with member input approved a plan outlining new and ambitious goals for the organization. To support implementation of the strategic plan the Board also approved an action plan for 2017, and completed 43 of 50 of the items in that plan in full and 5 in part or with some modification from the original plan (2 items deferred for future action).

The Communications Committee in 2017 engaged in a full rebranding of the organization with a new logo and by launching a new website that is easier to navigate and with greater visual appeal. In addition, the social media presence was substantially enhanced with an active and growing engagement on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The Membership Committee led an effort to revise how members join and retain a relationship with the organization, Washington Evaluators this year launched a two year membership status and the new organizational sponsor status. To date more than 30 members have changed their status to two year memberships and four organizations have signed up as sponsors.

The long-term infrastructure of the organization is built on the engagement and participation of dozens of volunteers. In recognition of the important role volunteers play in the success of Washington Evaluators, we are pleased to be able to recognize a volunteer of the year for the first time in 2017.

Looking Forward

2017 was a phenomenally energizing year for Washington Evaluators as an organization and for all evaluators in Washington, DC. In addition to the many achievements of Washington Evaluators throughout the year, policymakers in DC renewed calls for institutionalizing evaluation in the federal government. With the American Evaluation Association's annual conference in DC as a backdrop, the U.S. Congress advanced legislation to encourage more evaluation in agencies across government. We have much to look forward to in coming years!

Thank you to all who supported the many activities of the organization and strengthening our evaluation community in 2017. Please join me especially in thanking the entire Washington Evaluators Board of Directors and leaders of our many task forces for their leadership this year.

I hope you will continue to be engaged next year as well to support our growing community of evaluation practice!

NICK HART, PHD is the 2017 President of Washington Evaluators.

Announcing the Creation of the Washington Evaluators Volunteer of the Year Award

Fri, 24 Nov 2017 19:32:58 GMT

As the number of Washington Evaluators members and volunteers continues to grow, the Board of Directors of the organization has acknowledged a growing need to recognize our stellar volunteers. Washington Evaluators does not currently have a single staff member, so every service, event, and resource is produced by an all-volunteer team who provide countless hours of exceptional service to our local evaluation community.

Because so many volunteers offer their time to strengthen our profession and often do not ask for any recognition or compensation, I am proud to announce that this year Washington Evaluators will help fill this gap by launching a new "Volunteer of the Year Award."

The Volunteer of the Year Award is intended to recognize outstanding volunteers who provide dedicated and selfless service to the organization and the Washington, DC evaluation community. The intent is that recipients will have made significant contributions to the success of the organization's goals and mission attainment throughout the year.

The creation of this award was contemplated by the Board of Directors through a strategic planning process in 2017 and a subsequent action plan intended to strengthen the organization's infrastructure and long-term sustainability.

For 2017, nominations will be accepted through December 6, 2017. The recipient will be announced at the 2017 Holiday Party. Learn more about the nomination criteria, eligibility, selection process, and timing of the award here.

NICK HART, PHD is the 2017 President of Washington Evaluators.

Perspective: Why I Evaluate (#WhyEval)

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 01:37:24 GMT

Later this week the largest gathering of professional program evaluators in the world will convene here in Washington, DC as the American Evaluation Association launches its annual conference, Evaluation 2017. While many exciting activities will occur during the week, the conference theme -- "From Learning to Action" -- provides us all the opportunity to reflect on one basic question: why do I evaluate?

Learning Cultures

We live in a society that often focuses, perhaps too much, on the consequences of failure. For organizations and grantees, failing to deliver on promised activities can result in a loss of funding. In government, current political discourse would have us believe programs that operate imperfectly can or should be terminated altogether.

Instead of focusing on the consequences of failure, we could choose to focus on the benefits of failure. Consider failure from a personal rather than organizational perspective. In childhood, we learn quickly from mistakes like touching a hot pan on the stovetop or, in my case, shooting your brother with a bb gun. The benefits are that we generally avoid touching hot objects or take greater care in gun safety in the future. Over the course of our lives we make thousands of "mistakes" that productively inform our future behaviors.

Learning from failure is a natural part of the human experience, just as much as learning from success. Because organizations are comprised of humans, we should expect that both failure and success are similarly an organic component of organizational learning.

A learning culture must become more pervasive and routine in organizations and in our government -- it's how we improve, it's how we enhance ourselves, and it's how we make the world a better place to live. Learning cultures are what drive continuous improvements in the outcomes that matter. Learning cultures are how we ensure those in our society who need help and support receive effective assistance. And learning cultures are how we develop the information to act, ensuring our children grow into a better world that we have prepared for them. Recognizing that failure is inevitable and can be used to productively improve is a key component of a learning culture.

Why I Evaluate

This perspective on the purpose of a learning culture is one that is very timely for me. My son was born just over one week ago. His entry into the world has left me reflecting in recent days on many of life's priorities and the process of learning.

It's difficult to imagine becoming a parent that only admonishes my son's inevitable "failures" in life. It's also difficult to imagine only praising his successes. Both failure and success will present incredible learning opportunities and invaluable teaching moments.

How we act in response to any form of information is a direct reflection on our values. In my son and in my government, I value continuous improvement to be the best person or entity possible. I value a recognition that even in mistakes or failures, we can always improve ourselves to be our best reflection of the world. I value learning because it enables action in our lives, for our families, and for our futures.

So why do I evaluate? I evaluate to learn and improve through appropriate action. I evaluate to make the world a little better for my son. I evaluate to help make society stronger.

#WhyEval: A Call for Reflection

Evaluation is not merely a profession, it derives from a greater motivation, goal, and purpose. During the American Evaluation Association's conference this week, I encourage you to consider what drives you to support evaluation:

What is your motivation?
What is your goal?
What is your purpose?

As you reflect, I also encourage you to share why you evaluate (#WhyEval) with others as we all strive to better understand how learning segues to action in our own work and in our own lives.

NICK HART, PH.D. is the President of Washington Evaluators in 2017 and Director of the Evidence-Based Policymaking Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Join us in Washington, DC for #Eval17: From Learning to Action

Sat, 14 Oct 2017 12:53:47 GMT

Originally posted on AEA 365's A Tip a Day by and for Evaluators for the Local Arrangements Working Group sponsored week in July 2017

As the American Evaluation Association’s 2017 conference returns to Washington, DC, this fall, on behalf of the Washington Evaluators affiliate allow me to welcome you to DC for #Eval17! I am Nick Hart, current president of Washington Evaluators, AEA’s DC-based affiliate.

Washington Evaluators launched in 1984 and has grown to more than 300 local evaluators today. Our goal is to strengthen the evaluation community in the Washington, DC area. We pride ourselves on having a diverse representation of government, non-profit, academic, and independent evaluators that comprise our membership.

This year our membership worked to produce a new strategic plan to ensure the services and professional development opportunities offered truly serve our community. We now have four key strategic goals: strengthen the sustainability of the evaluation community; enhance evaluation relationships and interactions; support individual evaluators' professional development needs; and ensure strong administration of the organization. Each of these four strategic goals is a core component of the Washington Evaluators mission. In implementing our ambitious strategic plan, Washington Evaluators is working to create more opportunities to engage new evaluation professionals, further the professional development of long-time evaluation professionals, and offer the 30+ years of experience of our evaluation organization to other communities of practice throughout the country.

As the seat of the United States government, Washington, DC is perhaps best known for its influence in evaluation policy. But beyond the government, DC is home to leading evaluation organizations and the brightest evaluation minds in the U.S. Building on this broad evaluation expertise, as we prepare for an exciting #Eval17 this fall, over the course of this week on AEA365 we will be showcasing local resources, sites to visit, volunteer opportunities, a major advocacy event on Capitol Hill, and other tips for your trip to DC.

Rad Resource: Follow Washington Evaluators on Twitter or check out our website to learn more about the many opportunities available in the DC area. Many of our events are open to non-members as we support the entire DC evaluation community.

Lesson Learned: Book your travel for the conference early. There are three airports in close proximity to DC (Dulles, Reagan, and Baltimore). From any of these airports, the conference site is just a short Uber ride away. All are also reachable by DC’s public transit options.

Hot Tip: In addition to the resources we will share in advance of the conference, Washington, DC has an excellent tourism website that explains the sites to see in America’s Front Yard, provides tips on accessing the many free museums, and explains the neighborhoods in the city.

Get excited for a great conference this fall. We look forward to seeing you in DC!

NICK HART, PH.D. is the 2017 President of Washington Evaluators and a member of the American Evaluation Association's 2017 Conference Planning Committee.

AEA Newsletter: Walking the Talk with Nick Hart

Fri, 29 Sep 2017 22:38:36 GMT

Cross posted from the American Evaluation Association monthly newsletter from September 2017.

In September 2017, the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking proposed a bipartisan strategy – approved unanimously by the Members of the Commission – for improving the quantity and quality of evidence generated to support decision-makers in government. As the Commission published its strategy, a new initiative concurrently launched at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC, to promote implementation of the Commission’s recommendations in months and years to come. Serving as the Commission’s policy and research director and now as the director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s new initiative, I’m excited about the enthusiasm in Washington for ensuring policymakers have access to relevant and useful information to guide their decisions. But we must carry this enthusiasm forward to action that can improve our field, the policies we study, and ultimately the lives of individuals in our communities.

Aligning Values with Action

The vast majority of my professional career in evaluation has focused on supporting the policies that enable evaluation to be generated and used in government. The Commission’s recommendations present a tremendous opportunity for the evaluation community. This is an opportunity to exhibit leadership and champion improvements in the availability of evidence, to ultimately improve how government’s policies and programs are designed and implemented.

As the conversation continues in coming months and years about how government can better generate and use evidence, the values articulated by AEA for evaluation are constructive guideposts. As AEA members, we value “excellence in evaluation practice” and “utilization of evaluation findings.” Each of these value statements can and should be embodied and encouraged by the policies that support evaluation in government. This is precisely the nature of my work.

An evaluation that doesn’t exist, can’t inform policymakers. I’m a proponent of recognizing and addressing the many institutional barriers to supply of evaluation. There are many barriers that exist today – laws, resources, will, leadership, organizational culture, political environment, program designs. The Commission’s report emphasizes three key barriers to generating evidence, including evaluation, in the United States: “unintentional limits on data access, inadequate privacy practices, and insufficient capacity to generate the amount of quality evidence needed to support policy decisions.” All of these barriers are solvable and can be transformed into enablers of evaluation.

The Opportunities Ahead

Changing expectations for senior leaders, planning for evaluation at the outset of a program or policy, and establishing appropriate incentives are all approaches to emphasize enabling evaluation in our institutions. How do we accomplish these approaches? The Commission specifically recommends that as we improve data access and privacy protections, capacity gaps can be partially addressed by establishing a Chief Evaluation Officer position within each Federal department and that learning agendas be developed to prioritize evaluation where the need is greatest. When implemented, these recommendations will help ensure that senior leaders are attuned to the needs of evaluation practice, supporting excellence, and that the capacity exists to encourage appropriate and responsible use of evaluation findings.

These recommendations aren’t impossible. The recommendations aren’t unrealistic. In fact, it’s just the opposite. They are on the horizon and likely to become the norm in coming years. But as we all seek to strengthen the evaluation field, improving our practice, and enabling the ability to make evidence available for decision-making, it’s important to remember that many of these changes will not happen overnight.

In my view, the Commission’s bipartisan recommendations mark a major milestone for our country for recognizing that government needs better information to guide policymaking, and that generating this evidence is really possible. I hope the evaluation community will join me in advocating for these improvements – consistent with our values – to seize the rare opportunity to vastly improve government’s capacity to support evaluation.

NICK HART, PH.D. is the Director of the Evidence-Based Policymaking Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the former Policy and Research Director for the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. He is the 2017 President of Washington Evaluators and a member of the American Evaluation Association’s Evaluation Policy Task Force.

Implications of "The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking" for the evaluation community

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:00:00 GMT

Rarely does the topic of generating evidence to support government decision-making reach an audience outside the statistical, evaluation, and policy analysis communities. But today, the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking submitted its bipartisan set of recommendations -- supported unanimously by Members of the Commission -- igniting a discussion about how to do better.

In The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking, the Commission lays out a strategy for vastly improving the quantity and quality of evidence available in our country. The strategy seeks to overcome three prevailing challenges identified by the Commission: “unintentional limits on data access, inadequate privacy practices, and insufficient capacity to generate the amount of quality evidence needed to support policy decisions.”

I’ve had the great privilege of working with the Commission Members over the past year as their Policy and Research Director. But my personal involvement in the project should in no way minimize this message: in coming weeks, months, and years, these recommendations will set the tone for how our country goes about developing evidence to inform decisions in government for decades to come.

While the report of the Commission submitted to the President and Congress today addresses a range of issues and is not exclusively focused on the field of evaluation, there is no doubt that the recommendations could tremendously benefit the field if implemented. Take, for example, the Commission’s agreement with the American Evaluation Association that evaluation in government is too often “sporadic, applied inconsistently, and supported inadequately” (p. 26). One solution offered by the Commission is that departments in the Federal government should have Chief Evaluation Officers (see Recommendation 5-1). This alone is a strong statement about the value of and need for evaluation in our society.

But there’s much more. Chapter 2 of the Commission’s report highlights challenges and potential solutions to data access that can improve the evaluation community. Chapter 3 features improvements for privacy protections that go above and beyond approaches applied in much of government today. Chapter 4 offers a new solution to a long-standing issue about securely linked data together, including for evaluation. And Chapter 5 describes the basic capacity gaps in government today, along with strategies to vastly improve government’s coordination and infrastructure.

In my opinion, today marks a major milestone for our country in recognizing that government needs better information to guide policymaking, and that generating this evidence is really possible. I hope the evaluation community in Washington, D.C. will review, consider, discuss, and work to improve government’s capacity to better enable evaluation in support of evidence-based policymaking.

NICK HART, PH.D. is the President of Washington Evaluators in 2017 and served as the Policy and Research Director for the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. The views presented here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Government, including the Office of Management Budget and the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.

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Growing the Evaluation Field by Supporting New Professionals

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:19:20 GMT

In 1984, Lee Cronbach urged that "the evaluator is an educator; his success is to be judged by what others learn." [1] It's no coincidence that 1984 is also the year in which Washington Evaluators formed as one of the country's earliest professional evaluation societies committed to fostering continuous learning in our field.

Today, Washington Evaluators is committed to ensuring that our current cohort of professionals not only advocate to support the profession, but recruit future professionals into the field. Earlier this year, the Board of Washington Evaluators approved a new strategic plan that specifically identifies this as an objective for a goal to strengthen the evaluation community (see Objective 1.1).

To accomplish this objective the Washington Evaluators Board earlier this year established two new task forces to better address the needs of new professionals. First, we created a task force to develop a suite of recommendations for future consideration around improving the services available for new professionals.

Second, the Washington Evaluators Board established another task force led by Tamarah Moss from Howard University to design a new scholarship program for new professionals. This group's efforts resulted in the launch in August of the 2017 New Professionals Scholarship sponsored by Washington Evaluators. The new scholarship is intended to support new professionals in integrating evaluation practices and approaches within their respective organizations by encouraging participation in the American Evaluation Association's annual conference, as well as engagement over the next year with AEA and Washington Evaluators membership.

Through this new scholarship opportunity, Washington Evaluators hopes to strengthen the sustainability of the evaluation community, by recruiting and helping to educate the next generation of evaluators. The scholarship serves as one means to recruit new professionals into the evaluation community to facilitate continued diversity in the profession. It also ensures that those of us already engaged in the evaluation field can fulfill Cronbach's charge: to be educators and mentors to those who are new to the profession.

Learn more about the 2017 New Professional Scholarship here.

NICK HART, PH.D. is the President of Washington Evaluators in 2017. The views presented here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Government, including the Office of Management Budget and the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.

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References

[1] Cronbach, L., et al. 1984. Towards Reform of Program Evaluation. Washington: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Advocating for Evaluation in the Federal Government

Sat, 15 Jul 2017 14:15:21 GMT

The U.S. government has a long and storied experience with producing and using program evaluation. As evaluators, we often like to believe our purpose is clear and necessary. In reality, we know that is not always the case.

The evaluation movement in the Federal government grew out of the War on Poverty initiatives in the 1960s and related efforts to develop prospective analyses for major decisions at the Department of Defense and eventually the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s. We have a great many successes where evaluations, and prospective analyses, vastly improved the decisions made by Washington, DC policy-makers.

There are also plenty of examples over the last 50 years when major policy reforms were announced without careful consideration of the evidence. But one question is important in this critique -- did sufficient, credible evidence even exist in a format useful for decision-makers? Far too often the answer is a resounding "no."

Over the last several years, I have frequently been asked to speak to groups about the role of evaluation in informing different aspects of government decision-making. My punchline is often the same: Evaluation can only inform decision-making if it exists.

No evaluation that was promised -- but not delivered -- successfully influenced a policy decision. The challenge in government is developing the capacity to routinely produce evaluations that meet the needs of decision-makers.

The positive influence that evaluation has had on policy in DC occurred in spite of a largely decentralized and uncoordinated evaluation function in government. Not all Federal Departments have active central evaluation offices and there is great heterogeneity in production and use across agencies.

The lack of coordination in Federal evaluation is starting to slowly change. Several years ago, evaluation offices worked with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to recognize government could do better in coordinating the evaluation function. Together, they formed the Interagency Council on Evaluation Policy (ICEP). Then, working through ICEP, a group of agencies funded the National Academy of Sciences to convene a workshop to discuss principles and practices for evaluation in the Federal government. [1] Taken together, both actions are positive signs for the growing interest in institutionalizing an evaluation function in the Federal government -- a task longtime Washington Evaluators member Joe Wholey called for nearly 45 years ago. [2]

Why does coordination and the constant presence of the evaluation function matter? Because when evaluation is institutionalized it is also demanded, it is expected, and it happens. Institutionalization creates and maintains champions -- individuals who offer a constant voice to encourage activities and policies be evaluated, ensuring that the evidence does exist to inform decisions. Champions then produce real examples and success stories of the power evaluation can have on improving programs and services.

Ultimately in the long-term, demand for evaluation drives its supply. Evaluation supply relies on a range of factors, from legal authority to resources and expertise. But, perhaps above all, evaluation needs a motivated leader to set the stage. [3]

Leaders and evaluation champions can assume many forms, within the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch. And that's why this fall Washington Evaluators is happy to co-sponsor EvalAction this fall for members of Washington Evaluators and the American Evaluation Association. EvalAction will provide evaluators the opportunity to engage with congressional offices about the important role of evaluation in informing changes to Federal policies. With any luck, EvalAction may even help identify some new champions for evaluation in Congress.

Hopefully in the next 50 years when asked whether the evidence even existed to inform decisions, we will be able to more frequently offer a resounding and emphatic "yes!"

NICK HART, PH.D. is the President of Washington Evaluators in 2017 and a member of the American Evaluation Association's Evaluation Policy Task Force. The views presented here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Government, including the Office of Management Budget and the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.

References:

[1] National Academy of Sciences. 2017. Workshop on “Principles & Practices for Federal Program Evaluation.” Washington, DC: Committee on National Statistics.

[2] Wholey, J., et al. 1973. Federal Evaluation Policy. Washington DC: The Urban Institute.

[3] Hart, N. 2016. Evaluation at EPA: Determinants of Evaluation Supply at the Environmental Protection Agency. Diss. Washington, DC: George Washington University.

Announcing the Washington Evaluators 2017-2020 Strategic Plan

Fri, 19 May 2017 01:24:02 GMT

Fellow Evaluators --

Five months into a remarkable year for the field of program evaluation in the Washington, DC area, our organization is as active as ever. I am continuously reminded of the incredible dedication those in the DC-area demonstrate to promoting and advocating for evaluation, and I am inspired by the commitment our members show to bettering the field and our profession.

The spirit of strengthening evaluation is widespread, and that is precisely the motivation that led to the creation of a new Washington Evaluators 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, approved by the Board of Directors on May 17, 2017. I would especially like to thank the Board for their efforts in drafting the plan and all of the members who provided feedback on an earlier draft in recent weeks to support improving our organization.

A hallmark of the evaluation profession is assessing actions against stated goals. With the creation of this plan, Washington Evaluators as an organization is not only demonstrating the value of this proposition, but actively pursuing a well-known organizational best practice. This strategic plan has been developed to serve as a guide for Washington Evaluators for the remainder of this year and in coming years, as the organization strives to focus on "Strengthening the Evaluation Community in the Washington, DC Area."

Currently Washington Evaluators performs well on many levels, but there is always room for improvement and a need to know where we are starting from. As Washington Evaluators becomes more mature as an organization, this plan will be a guide for the Board of Directors and enable the development of annual action plans that contribute to achieving longer-term goals. It is my hope and intent that in coming years, future Boards will review and update the plan to ensure that the members of Washington Evaluators are receiving useful services and professional development opportunities that truly serve the Washington, DC community well for years to come.

And to demonstrate how progress will be made in accomplishing the goals and objectives in the 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, the Board is pleased to also announce a 2017 Action Plan as a complement, with specific short-term goals the Board will pursue this year. All of these actions are reasonably attainable – and some are even bold and ambitious – as Washington Evaluators embarks on a renewed effort for continuous organizational improvement.

The Board and our many volunteers have much work to do in this exciting year for evaluation in DC, but we are up to the challenge. On behalf of the entire Board, we look forward to your continued participation in the Washington Evaluators community.

Regards,

--Nick

Nicholas R. Hart, Ph.D.
2017 President
Washington Evaluators

Evaluation Looking Forward: Seeking Comment on a Draft Strategic Plan for Washington Evaluators

Tue, 02 May 2017 23:18:50 GMT

UPDATE: The final strategic plan was approved by the Board of Directors on May 17, 2017. For an updated version of this post and links to the approved plan, click here.

Dear Washington Evaluators Members --

I am excited to announce that over the last several months, the Board of Directors of Washington Evaluators has been engaged in a comprehensive strategic planning process for the organization. For professional evaluators, we know that strategic plans are incredibly valuable documents in outlining strategies for achieving organizational excellence and eventually assessing organizational performance.

One of my goals as President in 2017, articulated at the beginning of the year, is to reinforce the organization's infrastructure to ensure the sustainability of Washington Evaluators well into the future. Developing a robust strategic plan is one small step toward fulfilling that goal.

As part of our development of this strategy and plan, we are specifically seeking input from all active members of Washington Evaluators. Linked below is a draft document the Board will consider during the May 2017 Board meeting. We would like your feedback on the revised organizational mission statement, strategic goals, and objectives outlined in the plan.

Comments will be accepted on the plan from today through midnight on May 15th. Let us know what you think is most valuable to prioritize, or other goals and objectives you believe should be included in the plan.

Thank you in advance for your feedback and your continued contributions to the D.C. evaluation community.

Regards,
--Nick

Nick Hart, Ph.D.
2017 President
Washington Evaluators

UPDATE: The final strategic plan was approved by the Board of Directors on May 17, 2017. For an updated version of this post and links to the approved plan, click here.

Evaluation Matters: Recognizing Evaluation During the March for Science in Washington, DC

Sat, 22 Apr 2017 22:08:25 GMT

Today was a big day for evaluation, for evidence, and for science. Today, thousands of ordinary people took to the streets in Washington, DC – and in cities across the country – to proclaim support for the idea that science can and should play an important role in our society.

As I walked through the streets of Washington this afternoon, I was impressed to see people from all walks of life, the young and old, Republicans and Democrats, and representatives of the many disciplines of the scientific community marching alongside each other, in spite of pouring rain. This great diversity of resilient marchers reflects the continued belief that science is not a partisan or ideological endeavor; instead, it is an enterprise that can be used to develop better policies.

Earlier this week the American Evaluation Association's Board and the Evaluation Policy Task Force recognized evaluation as an important part of the scientific community by endorsing the goals and mission of today's March for Science. In doing so, AEA reminded us that

"Evaluation is an essential function of government. It can enhance oversight and accountability of federal programs, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services, assess which programs or policies are working and which are not, and provide critical information needed for making difficult decisions about them."

Indeed, AEA's timeless statement captures the sentiment I encourage all members of Washington Evaluators to promote this year: evaluation matters. Evaluation doesn't just matter because it's our profession, evaluation matters because it is a tool to enhance people's lives and ultimately improve our society, and those are goals we can all agree on.

Evaluation Through Transitions and Across Administrations

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 02:00:52 GMT

On March 10th, Washington Evaluators and The Evaluators Institute convened a panel of evaluation experts to discuss "Evaluation Policies and Approaches Across Administrations." On a Friday evening, more than 50 evaluators joined to reflect on how evaluation policy has been shaped over the years by different Presidents and to what degree evidence was used to inform policy decisions across administrations. The panelists each offered interesting perspectives from their various experiences. Here are several points from my own remarks that are especially relevant to our evaluation community in DC.

Our Shared Goal

While the transition of power in the Executive Branch of government affects how policies are implemented, and which are prioritized, it's important to remember that evaluators and policymakers share a common goal – to improve the lives of people. Despite differences in political views and philosophies, which will undoubtedly vary, we must strive to acknowledge our shared goals, because this is precisely what evaluation seeks to achieve – better, more efficient programs and policies that improve people lives.

We use evaluation to improve programs that help keep homeless veterans off the streets, ensure children have enough food to eat, protect our health by limiting pollution in our air and water, help the unemployed find work, and provide opportunity to those who need it most. It is because our common goals are the same that determining how to best achieve our policy aims is a moral imperative.

In thinking about the relationship between evaluators and policymakers, we must also acknowledge that evaluation is inherently political. We work in a profession that is designed to pass judgment on policies and programs, to announce winners and losers. Pericles said that "just because you do not take an interest in politics, does not mean politics will not take an interest in you." And this is exactly where evaluators often find themselves; it's where we thrive. But even then, we must recognize that evaluation needs to be conducted in an apolitical manner, maximizing the credibility of findings with an appropriate level of independence.

New Priorities in New Administrations, Yet Common Challenges Persist

New administrations will always introduce new priorities, but that does not lessen the value of evaluation for its two primary purposes: accountability and learning. We often have questions in new administrations about what priorities will be the real focus – and whether evaluation will be part of that discussion. In practice, we know that in recent years, whether in times of increasing or declining budgets, agencies have articulated a priority for building new evidence.

In 2015, Kathy Newcomer and I wrote a working paper comparing the evidence initiatives in the George W. Bush Administration and the Barack Obama Administration. What you see looking across them is that there are a striking number of similarities, most of which have nothing to do with political philosophies. Instead, they have everything to do with the shared goal of making government better, and improving the lives of Americans.

In the Bush Administration, efforts to implement the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) included specific questions about evaluation that we know today encouraged some agencies to pursue evaluation, bolstering evaluation capacity. During the Bush Administration, Federal agencies started developing clearinghouses for evaluation results and increased funding for targeted evaluation activities across government. Then, the Obama Administration pursued the "thousand flowers bloom" strategy building on the Bush efforts by requesting even more funding for evaluation, pushing out initiatives to encourage pay for success, and even creating new, formal evaluation positions in some parts of government.

Looking across these initiatives, Kathy Newcomer and I distilled three key challenges that persist. First, we need to identify how to better balance the purposes of evidence-building activities, recognizing there is a need for methods in evaluation to address both the learning and accountability purposes. Addressing both purposes also means we need to better synergize the existing infrastructure for evidence-building in government, starting with a recognition that the canyon between performance measurement and evaluation must be bridged.

Second, attention must be given to acquiring and sustaining audiences for evidence. And this is the case regardless of which political party controls the White House. For years we have simply assumed that the establishment of demand for evaluation, met with sufficient supply, presents one strategy for developing and maintaining a use case for performance information. But neither administration made serious strides in helping their political appointees embrace evaluation or other evidence initiatives.

Third, initiatives must be implemented effectively. This point seems so obvious it's almost not worth saying – except that we must be explicit about the role effective implementation has in initiatives' success. Even the best designed, theory-based initiative must face the realities of implementation in the complex, institutional structures of government. In practice, the perverse incentives introduced with mandating performance and evaluation activities may lead implementers to focus merely on measurable outcomes, rather than the desirable. This is one of the reasons why more cross-agency collaboration is needed, to break down silos of topical emphases to look at how programs interact. For far too long, cross-agency collaboration has been an oxymoron in government and it's time to address this limitation.

Moving Forward: What You Can Do

Given the many challenges facing the evaluation community regardless of who is in the seat of power, what can be done to move forward? Here are several brief suggestions:

1. Stay Calm. Transitions are a routine part of democratic society. It takes time for agency leaders to settle in and to learn about the priorities before them. Evaluation may not be the first thing that a new appointee turns to, but inevitably it will be part of the discussion – everyone wants to know what they achieved at the end of an appointment. This is one strategy for beginning to build a better audience for evaluation.

2. Articulate the value of evaluation as a community. We can do this by bolstering our professional networks of evaluators, both inside and outside of government to facilitate appropriate connections and ensure the multiple purposes of evaluation are represented. In the DC area we have Washington Evaluators to facilitate this networking, and there are several other communities of practice available to individuals within the government. With a broader community we can help present evaluation as a tool for more than informing budget decisions – though we hope that it is among those tools – but one that helps promote learning and continuous improvement in policies and programs.

3. Inform decision-makers about the usefulness of evaluation. In order for evaluation to be useful, decision-makers will need to understand how existing evaluations can be used to help shape and frame new policies, or even review old ones. These available evaluations allow us to find opportunities to continue to educate the public and their leaders about the role many important government programs play in achieving our shared goal for the country, especially in helping to implement initiatives effectively. Evaluators can help facilitate informed use of evaluation, noting the relevance of existing evaluations and identifying important caveats as new policy decisions are formulated.

4. Help agencies find opportunities to bolster their analyses. Similar to the suggestion above about highlighting the usefulness of evaluation, we can actually strive to make evaluation more useful too! One strategy might be to incorporate in our evaluations analysis of disparities in policies that exist across subgroups of our population. I recently wrote at greater length about the latest Dialogue on Race and Class, a January event co-sponsored by Washington Evaluators, the American Evaluation Association, and George Washington University. Our community must give greater attention to the evaluation of subgroups because the challenges facing our society are complex and disparities can be inadvertently embedded in policies. We owe it to our fellow citizens to help identify and address such injustices.

At the end of the day, we do not live in a perfect system of government. In fact, change in the policies of our representative democracy was designed to be difficult. But it's what we've got. So let's make the best of it by continuing to learn and improve together, to accomplish our shared goal.

Reflections on Race and Class in America

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 23:00:00 GMT

On January 30th, I was honored to participate in a Dialogue on Race and Class in America, co-sponsored by Washington Evaluators, the American Evaluation Association, and the Trachtenberg School at George Washington University. Issues of inequities in race and class have continued to reflect "wicked problems" in our society and in the evaluation profession. The conversation we started last month was just an opening to the dialogue among evaluators. The first step is acknowledging the challenge, the second is beginning to identify solutions for continued progress to address the challenge in our own work.

While the full panel discussion on January 30th was more than 90 minutes in length, I want to draw your attention to several key points from my own remarks that are especially salient for Washington Evaluators.

The Social Mobility Challenge

Social mobility in America today is simply not equitable. This point is often taken for granted, and therefore must be explicitly acknowledged: we know that today opportunities are not equal for everyone in this country, even if they should be. When we stratify groups of individuals by race, ethnicity, gender, or economic status, not all are on an equal playing field, often by no fault of their own. This is our current reality.

The challenges have been documented in a growing body of literature and analysis. For example, Isabell Sawhill at the Brookings Institution cites that about two-thirds of white individuals in poverty move to the middle class by middle age, but less than one-third of black individuals do the same. Raj Chetty's recent work suggests that children today are increasingly unlikely to earn more than their parents, and this trend is amplified for minority children.

Many communities, businesses, and non-profits across the country are committed to helping Americans realize opportunities by supporting mentoring programs or training for specific skills, to ultimately help individuals reach the workforce. We've seen this as a consistent message from our political leaders – that transcends political parties and philosophies: regardless of your race, gender, or upbringing, we all have a right to succeed.

The Obama Administration spearheaded an initiative that was specifically aimed at targeting disparities where they existed. Through the creation of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, Federal agencies and communities across the country focused attention on creating opportunities for young people to reach their full potential. President Obama described it as one way to reinforce the core value of community.

So however we perceive the social mobility disparities that exist today, there is broad agreement that (1) the disparities are real and (2) social immobility is not a reflection of our shared values.

Addressing the Inequities of Social Mobility with Evaluation

So what can be done to address the challenge? Three actions of particular importance come to mind that evaluators can begin to take today: consider context, assess disparities, and communicate race and class dynamics to evaluation users.

First, context matters. Always. Lee Cronbach made this appeal to the evaluation community in his evaluation theses in 1984. This is very much the case for issues related to race and class. Evaluation of policies and programs must appropriately address the context in which they operate.

In real estate we say "location, location, location." Place matters in determining access to opportunity and services. Recent re-analysis of the Moving to Opportunity demonstration project suggests that for every extra year a child avoids a low-poverty environment, that child benefits, as measured through increases in lifetime earnings. Other recent work by Raj Chetty et al. identified substantial disparities in life expectancy based on geography; this has serious implications for race and class.

If context matters, then evaluators must be able to consider the implications of these aspects on their own perspectives evaluating projects. In practice, this might mean that at the outset of an evaluation, an evaluator needs to develop a deeper understanding of a community or social group to effectively and fairly carry out an evaluation. In order to be culturally sensitive, an evaluator may need to tap into networks of other evaluators or colleagues who can assist in understanding community values and group perspectives. Washington Evaluators provides a vital network that can help fill this gap while strengthening our entire evaluation community, and other AEA affiliates around the country are positioned to do the same.

Second, evaluation of disparities is essential. Because there are persistent challenges in realizing social mobility opportunities, we need continuous attention to current policies and programs to ensure they target real barriers. Evaluators can offer an important contribution to address injustice, simply by providing analysis that identifies the disparities.

We can all recognize and generally agree that generating valid, reliable, and relevant evidence about how programs work, when they work, and for whom is absolutely critical. For addressing social mobility inequities, we must strive to understand the whom through the completion of sub-group analyses when possible, whether by race, class, gender, or some other attribute relevant to the purpose of an evaluation and the needs of the audience.

Finally, race and class dynamics should be communicated to evaluation clients and users. Evaluators cannot force decision-makers and funders to consider race and class in their actions, but we can encourage them to give these issues appropriate attention by including these important considerations in our evaluations and analyses. At a minimum, drawing attention to disparities helps bring issues to light for broader accountability in communities participating in programs and policies of interest.

Will the evaluation profession single-handedly address all the injustices in our society? Of course not. But we can begin to take steps that move us in a positive direction. First, we must recognize social mobility is inequitable. Then, we can apply our expertise and draw attention to the real problems that exist. This seemingly minor contribution will help us all design better programs and policies that provide everyone with the opportunity to succeed, including those who face the greatest inequities.

NICK HART, PH.D. is the President of Washington Evaluators in 2017. The views presented here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Government.

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A Message from the 2017 WE President on Goals and Priorities

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 01:34:17 GMT

Fellow WE Members --

It is my great honor to kick off an exciting year for the field of evaluation here in Washington, DC! We expect discussions about evidence-building in the DC-area will continue to see an intense focus in 2017, highlighting evaluation's critical role in supporting and informing decisions in government, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. I'm excited for Washington Evaluators (WE) to play a crucial role that increasingly supports our community and profession.

Let me begin by thanking the all-volunteer 2017 Board for Washington Evaluators for their service, and their willingness to help strengthen the field of evaluation here in DC. I'd also like to thank last year's WE President, David Bernstein, for his leadership and dedication to our community, and will look forward to his continued participation on the Board as Past-President.

As our attention turns from the many accomplishments of 2016 to the possibilities in 2017 for learning with and from evaluation, I want to take this opportunity to highlight my priorities over the next year as WE's 2017 President:

1. Support Initiatives Strengthening the National Evaluation Community. As many of you know, in addition to the American Evaluation Association's (AEA) annual conference returning to DC this fall, former WE President Kathy Newcomer recently became President of AEA. Given WE's history of working closely with AEA, WE will be heavily involved in many of AEA's activities this year. First, later this month, WE will be co-sponsoring a Dialogue on Race and Class that I hope many of you will join. Second, in partnership with AEA's Evaluation Policy Task Force, WE is co-sponsoring an initiative for evaluators to visit Members of Congress and their staff this fall to discuss the importance of evaluation practice (details here).

Then, of course, this November AEA's annual evaluation conference returns to DC (#Eval17). As part of WE's support, we will be reinforcing the 2017 conference theme "From Learning to Action" through our events for the entire year. Finally, over the spring and fall, WE members Giovanni Dazzo and Jonathan Jones will be coordinating the Local Arrangements Working Group to help facilitate the DC-hosting of the fall conference.

2. Enhance Evaluation Services and Benefits for our DC-based Members. Your WE membership entitles you to participate in our many professional development activities and evaluation networking events. This year WE will be expanding the benefits available as part of your membership, and also working to increase the opportunities to meaningfully engage with your fellow evaluators.

First, we're aiming to provide more professional development events this year and are exploring opportunities to increasingly allow for remote participation for our members. Our first professional development event of the year will pilot allowing members to join by phone! Second, over the next month WE will be launching a new mentoring program designed over the past year -- stay tuned for details.

Third, building on Lee Cronbach's suggestion that the sine qua non for improving the evaluation enterprise was building a stronger evaluation profession, WE will be doing more to connect evaluators to colleagues in their own neighborhoods in 2017. As part of this effort, later this month I will be hosting evaluators who live on Capitol Hill in my home for what I hope to be the first in a longer series of Sine Quo Non Dinners. Fourth, new professionals and students are the future of the evaluation community. For this reason, this month I am creating a special task force to develop a strategy for better serving this part of our community. Finally, as a service to the entire evaluation community in DC, I am also creating special committee to develop a new scholarship program to contribute to supporting the growth of evaluation in our region. The special committee will be charged with designing a program to award scholarships that can support individuals in the DC-area participating in our local and national community of evaluation practitioners.

3. Reinforce our Infrastructure for WE's Sustainability. As WE grew over the last decade, new opportunities and ideas have been constantly presented to the Board as a way to expand WE's reach. To ensure these new opportunities align with the broader strategic vision for our organization, this winter the WE Board will develop a strategic plan to help guide our future initiatives and planning. But even in the absence of that plan, there is much work to be done to strengthen our infrastructure and to continue expanding our community.

In this vein, several targeted efforts are already underway. First, in 2017, WE is making some monthly Board meetings more accessible by piloting virtual meetings in several months. Second, renewing memberships can sometimes come at inconvenient times since we're all busy. For our professional members, WE just launched a two year renewal option to help reduce the burden of processing memberships every year. The choice of a one year or two year renewal is up to each individual member, but the two year option ensures you will stay informed and be eligible for other benefits without interruption. We will continue exploring other opportunities to minimize the administrative burden in the future as well.

Third, we know that many WE members work for small organizations and can benefit from having multiple members as part of our evaluation community. So WE just launched new organization sponsorships that encourage joint memberships with colleagues in your own workplace. WE will feature these organizations on our website as WE sponsors and hope to find opportunities to partner with these organizations on events in the future.

As you can see, 2017 will be an exciting year for evaluation in DC, and we have much work to do. I hope that each of you will commit to attending events, networking with fellow evaluators, and volunteering to support our evidence-building community. I hope to see you soon and look forward to a very exciting year focused on learning in our evaluation field and supporting our society's need for continuous evidence-building.

Regards,
--Nick

Nick Hart, Ph.D.
2017 President
Washington Evaluators

Washington Evaluators 2016 Annual Report

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 00:15:00 GMT

Click here to read the full 2016
Washington Evaluators Annual Report

Dear Washington Evaluators Members,

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Washington Evaluators (WE), we would like to thank you for your membership, and for your participation in Washington Evaluators in 2016. The past year has been an energizing and productive year for WE.

When 2016 began with David assuming the Presidency of WE, he informed the WE Board of his several strategic priority areas for the organization over the year:

Communicate and enhance the value of membership to WE members and potential members. WE has always been and remains committed to not only supporting our members, but also supporting the field of evaluation in the Washington, DC area. This meant that many of our events, including Professional Development Brown Bags and high visibility networking events were made available to members and non-members alike. For 2016, we wanted members and non-members to know that membership is valued and reasonably priced. During 2016, we worked to better articulate member benefits. We created a couple of “WE member only” events, including:
- Access to a Discussion with Michael Quinn Patton (cohosted with the Alliance for Peacebuilding) and
- A Visiting Evaluator Meet-and-Greet with Data Visualization Expert Stephanie Evergreen.

Do you have any ideas for future member-only events? Be sure to let us know!

Expand opportunities for evaluation graduate students and new evaluators. As the first Chair of AEA’s Graduate Student and New Evaluator Topical Interest Group, David has always been committed to providing professional development and networking opportunities for graduate students and new evaluators, our profession’s next generation. With the Board’s support, David called upon the WE University Ambassadors to join him for a Brown Bag titled Transitioning from School to Work: Preparing Evaluation Students and New Evaluators for the Profession. The Brown Bag was very well attended, with participation by numerous students in addition to the stellar panel of AEA Past-presidents and AEA’s President-elect (and WE Past-president) Kathy Newcomer. The session became a catalyst for an equally well-attended AEA session and a WE supported DC area Student Evaluation Conference scheduled for 2017.

Expand the active engagement of WE members and volunteers. As a registered volunteer organization of professional evaluators (VOPE), Washington Evaluators has always recognized that activities cannot occur without the long-term commitment of WE’s elected and appointed Board members, and the many volunteers with ongoing or one-time involvement in WE activities. Activities for 2016 included a WE member Meet-and-Greet networking event targeted at newer WE members. WE also provided expanded volunteer leadership opportunities with a Bylaw revision that members approved in 2015 that established a new Communications Committee and reinforced the role of the Membership and Communications Committees. Many of the new features of WE, including our Friday Email Blasts, were made possible by Communications Chair Melba Reed's ingenuity and creativity in designing the responsibilities of the new committee.

For all their work over the past year, we would like to thank:
- Brian Yoder, 2016 WE Past President, who previously served as WE President twice;
- Stephanie Cabell, 2016 WE Secretary and 2017 WE President–Elect;
- Dow Maneerattana, 2016 Treasurer;
- Giovanni Dazzo, 2016 Program Chair;
- Robin Kelley, 2016 Membership Chair;
- Melba Reed, 2016 Communications Chair; and
- the many volunteers who served on WE committees.

We invite you to explore volunteering with WE in 2017, either on a standing committee, as part of a short-term task force or working group, or by volunteering to help with a one-time activity.

Continue and enhance WE’s work with AEA: With the AEA headquarters based in Washington, DC and the AEA conference occurring every four years in DC, WE has a unique relationship with AEA, and WE members have multiple opportunities to contribute both nationally and locally to the evaluation community. Thanks to the initiative of the Board starting in late 2013, WE agreed to serve as a pilot for development of complementary membership development activities. David was asked to participate in the first of its kind presentation to AEA staff on the field of evaluation, fielding questions and addressing such issues as what distinguishes evaluation from research, evaluator skill sets and background, evaluation methods and approaches, and whether evaluation makes a difference (of course it does!). WE was the first affiliate to assist the new AEA management company with the annual conference in 2013, and is looking forward to once again assisting with the 2017 conference being chaired by WE Past President and 2017 AEA President Kathy Newcomer.

Participate as a leading VOPE with other AEA affiliates: WE continued to be represented by Nick and David on the Local Affiliate Collaborative (LAC), a gathering of AEA affiliates from across the United States. Nick served on the Board of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, David and Nick participated in a 2016 LAC AEA conference session on communities of practice, and David providing guidance that led to the establishing the Maine Evaluation Society.

We invite you to review the attached 2016 annual report, and look forward to your continued participation in and support of our community of practice.

Sincerely,

David J. Bernstein, 2016 WE President
Nicholas R. Hart, 2017 WE President

Click here to read the full 2016
Washington Evaluators Annual Report