Kevin Brady is a fairly new member of the Washington Evaluators (WE). He's been engaged with the organization for a little over a year. Born and raised in the Boston area, this Virginia Tech alumnus (Syracuse undergraduate) was referred to WE by a friend and former colleague, Dr. Josh Joseph. So far, he enjoys connecting with other evaluators and learning some best practices on a broad range of evaluation topics.
Brady asserts, "The WE Twitter feed is very informative. Specifically, the tweet from a brown bag WE had around Building Agency Capacity." He learned that only a third of federal agencies report using evaluation regularly in decision-making. That information allowed him to think differently about interacting with agencies as an evaluator and making assumptions about resources they have on their end. He discovered it was vital to keep them engaged every step of the way. Brady also acknowledges that practical advice is also a valued jewel of being a member of WE. Brady said, "I saw a post on Excel heat tables, and I used it at the office. I like the fact that there is actionable, practical advice right on the web page that's really easy to apply professionally."
Currently, Kevin works as the Partnership for Public Service's Evaluation Manager. He's been with that organization since 2008 where he serves as the lead program evaluator. The Partnership is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to revitalize the federal government by working on a range of human capital issues, from leadership and management training to recruitment, hiring, and employee engagement.
Prior to working in Washington, he spent two years in New Orleans working for a federal Katrina recovery program, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, directing native-language education programs for herdsmen in the Gobi desert. He attended several WE events in 2015 and will continue to be engaged in 2016. He posits, " I'm really excited to connect with WE members and to take full advantage of future events and resources." WE welcome you!