WE Member News

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If you know anything about the American Evaluation Association, you have heard of Dr. Kathryn Newcomer- the outgoing presiding officer of the organization. With 36 years at George Washington under her belt, she was the founding director and currently serves as director of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration where she teaches public and nonprofit program evaluation and research design. She has been the director of all three of their degree programs at one time (MPA, MPP and PhD). She routinely conducts research and training for federal and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations on performance measurement and program evaluation, and has designed and conducted evaluations for many U.S. federal agencies and dozens of nonprofit organizations. With five books, numerous publications and several awards under this Fulbright Scholar’s belt, it is obvious that she has earned her keep. When asked how she began her love affair with evaluation, she describes how she kind of ‘fell into it.’ She states, “I fell into Program Evaluation accidentally as an adjunct who was to teach it a month before the semester started! So I went over to learn about it from my Mentor Joe Wholey.” She’s been all in ever since. 

Washington Evaluators is proud to announce the first recipient of the new Volunteer of the Year Award is Nick Zyznieuski. The award recognizes members of the organization who make significant contributions to the success of the organization and for the benefit of the Washington, DC evaluation community.

In 2017, as a member of the program committee, Zyznieuski launched and coordinated the new Washington Evaluators Mentor Minutes program. The initiative is designed to encourage other members to engage with other in short-term mentorship relationships.

"Through Nick's service, the Mentor Minutes initiative has provided an outlet for evaluators to learn from those in their community and to build personal and professional connections," Program Chair Giovanni Dazzo wrote in Nick's nomination. "These benefits are in line with our mission of strengthening the evaluation community in Washington, DC."

The Mentor Minutes initiative was approved by the Board of Directors in 2016 as a proof of concept, and fully launched in 2017 with 10 successful mentor-mentee pairings.

"We are proud of Nick's leadership on this initiative and thank him for recognizing the important role mentoring has in strengthening our evaluation community," said 2017 Washington Evaluators President Nick Hart. "We look forward to Nick's continued engagement as a leader in Washington Evaluators in the months and years ahead."

Zyznieuski is currently a monitoring and evaluation specialist at the Dexis Consulting Group in Washington, DC. He holds a masters degree from the University of Kentucky and a bachelors degree from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. 

Three Continents Down, Four to Go!

She's evaluating the world, one continent at a time. Meet Rabab, an independent evaluation consultant who implements evaluations in international development in the Middle East/Africa, Asia and NorthAmerica; soon we will be reading about her travels to the remaining four continents! This Monitoring and Evaluation specialist primarily works in the education, democracy and governance sectors and occasionally train donor staff and local program staff on evaluation methods. 

Ms. Saab completed her undergraduate studies at Lebanese American University earning a degree in Mass Communication. Thereafter, she received a Master of Arts in education from the American University of Beirut. 

As a long time member of AEA and having a passion for meeting new people (especially within the evaluation field), it was only natural to cast her three year membership with the Washington Evaluators. 

WE's professional enhancement programs and opportunities to network with others in the international development field keeps her coming back. Moreover, her commitment to volunteering on the program planning committee. 

When she isn't busy evaluating and monitoring the world you can catch Rabab enjoying nature. Taking walks in the park and relaxing on the beach are some of her most favorite ways to wind down. 

If you want to learn more about this world renown evaluator, you can reach her at Rababsaab@gmail.com or connect with her on LinkedIN. 

Members of Washington Evaluators will be participating in the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) fall conference, Evaluation 2017, here in Washington, DC from November 6-11.  At least 97 Washington Evaluators members will join the conference as presenters, panel chairs, group leaders, and discussants in over 170 sessions. These presentations collectively cover every time slot of the conference, exclusive of plenary sessions.

A list of the Washington Evaluators members participating in AEA sessions in any capacity is provided below (as of Oct. 2, 2017).  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, let us know at washeval@gmail.com. 

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Pre-Conference Workshop - Two Day (Mon/Tues)

• Donna Mertens, 01: Eval 101

Pre-Conference Workshop - One Day (Tues)

• Kerry Bruce, 08: Big data and evaluation
• Rodney Hopson, 12: Foundations of Culturally Responsive Evaluation

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed AM)

• Gail Barrington, 44: Staying Power: Strategies to Handle Consulting Issues

Pre-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Wed PM)

• Denise Baer, 59: Using Logic Models, Logframes, and Theories of Change as Evaluability Tools with Project Teams
• Mary Kane, 61: Utilization Focused Group Concept Mapping: Building Your Research for Inclusion, Translation and Use
• Brian Yates, 50: Adding Costs to Make Your Evaluation More Impactful (and Better Used): Cost-Effectiveness, Cost-Benefit, Cost-Utility Analyses for Health and Human Services

Wednesday Concurrents 1:45pm-2:30pm

• David Bernstein, Presidential Strand 3519: Ten Years Later – Where is Learning Now?
• Nick Hart, Cheryl Oros, Stephanie Shipman, 3352: Federal Evaluation Community of Learning

Wednesday Concurrents 2:35pm-3:15pm

• Nick Hart, Presidential Strand, 2798: Practice-Informed Theories of Valuing: Elaborating Evaluation Theory to Enhance Evaluation Methodology and Practice

Wednesday Opening Keynote 3:15 pm-4:15 pm

• Kathryn Newcomer, From Learning to Action: Employing Evaluation to Advance the Public Good

Wednesday Concurrents 4:30pm-6:00pm

• Soumya Alva, ICCE6: Learning to Action across International Evaluation: Perspectives from Africa
• Melissa Chiappetta, 2192: What we’ve learned from putting Adaptive Learning and Experimentation into practice
• Sathi Dasgupta, 1179: Meet the Pros: Intermediate Consulting Skill Fair
• Giovanni Dazzo, Jonathan Jones 2511: Raising the stakes: Building safety and trust in evaluations of at-risk populations
• Diana Epstein, 2375: Three- and Four-Armed Randomized Trials as Tools for Examining Multiple Policy Interventions: Risks and Rewards
• Angelo Gamarra, 1704: Creating a learning strategy to build M&E capacity and standardize measurements in women's leadership
• Rodney Hopson, 2810: GEDI 15 - Learning from the AEA GEDI Program Leaders and Mentors, 15 years and counting: Towards action to reshape the field of evaluation
• Akashi Kaul, CPE3: Participatory Evaluation: Engaging Participants in the Evaluation Process
• Carlisle Levine, 1458: Shifting the balance of power: Evaluating a foundation’s effort to build local advocacy capacity in sub-Saharan Africa
• Cheryl Oros, 3353: Federal Evaluation: Reflections by Naomi Goldstein
• Katelyn Sedelmyer, PREK127: Evaluating the Preparation and Development of Educators
• Jana Sharp, 1325: Other People Are Smart, Too: Management Lessons from Our Colleagues in Different Sectors
• Juna Snow, 3130: What are the implications of evaluators’ evaluation anxiety to program evaluation accountability standards and reflective practice competencies?

Wednesday Concurrents 6:15pm-7:15pm

• Joy Amulya, Anne Laesecke, 3089: Reflective M&E approaches
• Laura Arnston, Ami Henson, 2345: Learning from USAID Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Platform Contracts
• Val Caracelli, Stephanie Shipman, 2873: Are we making full use of Evaluation in the public sector?
• Imara Crooms, 2509: Freedom to Learn: How Adaptive Management Can Lead to Better Data, More Learning, and Stronger Programs
• Rodney Hopson, 1327: Beyond Culturally Responsive Evaluation: Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Equity-Oriented Organizational Practices
• Mary Hyde, 1892: Building a National Evaluation in Diverse Community Settings with a Common Protocol
• Alison Mendoza-Walters, 2993: GEDI15 Alumni Reflections: How Learning to Action Produces Culturally Responsive Evaluation Knowledge-Brokers and Leaders
• Svetlana Negroustoueva, 2773: Gender, M&E and Environmental Programming in Climate Finance Institutions – Learning What Works and How
• Joe Wholey, 3088: Understanding and Managing Factors that Affect Evaluation Use and Nonuse

Wednesday Posters, 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm

• Jessica Gajarsa, 3084: Using comparative case studies to assess pathways to sustainability and scale in developing contexts
• Robin Kelley, 2678: Linking Communities to Care (LINC) through HIV and PrEP Navigation program
• Tara Marie Lightner, 2851: Think Fast, Act Faster: Short, Flexible, and Useful Evaluations
• Tamarah Moss, 2648: Enhancing evaluation practice through a case study of HIV Workforce training evaluation in the Caribbean
• Kathryn Newcomer, 1098: Building Evaluation Capacity for Both Students and Clients: Incorporating Applied Learning in Evaluation Courses
• Ichhya Pant, 2328: Evaluation of innovative technological tools for HIV prevention
• William Pate, 2469: From Learning to Action: An Applied Example of Propensity Score Matching
• Jonathan Pearson, 3282: Hey Government! Let’s get more from evaluation: Expanding the utility of performance indicators by tailoring to our audiences
• Jacqueline Singh, 1796: Using Conceptual Frameworks When Logic Models Alone Just Won’t Do
• Brandie Taylor, 2159:Comparative Study of P01 and R01 Grant Mechanisms at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Brandie Taylor, 2152: Evaluation of the ‘Facilitating Remote Meeting Essentials’ Training Course at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Brandie Taylor, 2380: Methods to Determine the Value of Biomedical Research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Brandie Taylor, 2144: Promoting Evaluation Capacity through the Use of an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract Mechanism at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/NIH
• Brian Yates, 2304: Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of CBT versus LT for SAD at Second-Winter

Thursday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am

• Michelle Abraczinskas, 2261:Using the Interactive Systems Framework to Guide Evaluation in Community Capacity-Building Interventions
• Melissa Chiu, 2454: Moving Beyond the Barriers 2.0 - Effective Models for Using Administrative Data to Generate Evidence and Enhance Evaluation Capacity
• Hillary Eschenburg, 2682: Innovative Qualitative Approaches to Capturing Complexity: Three Case Studies
• Dale Hill, 2890: An” Inconvenient Truth” for Evaluators: Credibility-based Programming for Small Non-Profits can be Optimal
• Deborah Levy, Kate Rohrbaugh, 2797: All About Action: Evaluation Methods in the International Development Context at the Peace Corps
• Alison Mendoza-Walters, HE6: Juggling the needs of multiple parties and building capacity through engagement with partners and stakeholders
• Stephen Porter, 2423: Conducting Evaluation System Diagnostics - Tools and Experience from INGOs and Governments
• Jacqueline Singh, 2248:The OL-ECB Commons Project: Refining the open source repository
• Veronica Thomas, 1429: Cultural Conflicts of Interest: Definition, Description, and Avoidance

Thursday Concurrents 10:30am-11:15am

• Soumya Alva, ITE2: Technological Tools Enhancing Evaluation
• Nick Hart, Presidential Strand, 3218: Our Once and Future Evaluation Users: Observations from the Past and Ideas for the Future of Environmental Evaluation in Evidence-based Policymaking
• Travis Mayo, 2399: The Fast and the Furiously Adaptive: How Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Drive Adaptive Management
• Amy Ritualo, Quant3: Assessing treatment effects

Thursday Concurrents 11:30am-12:15pm

• Tina Byenkya, 3103: Thinking through absorption and learning of RCTs: perspectives from a donor and implementing partner
• Debra Dekker, IE1: Learning from others: Clarifying roles and working with other stakeholders
• Nick Hart, Mary Hyde, Joe Wholey, 2573: Evaluation in Transition: The Evolving Role of Evaluation Across Presidential Administrations

Thursday Birds of a Feather, 12:15 pm-1:15pm

• Joy Amulya, 2490: Challenges of Conducting Return on Investment Analyses of Development Efforts
• Heather Britt, 2837: Evaluation Capacity Building for Doing Things Differently
• Dale Hill, 2911: Measuring Impact of creative expression activities for pediatric patients (Art/Music)
• Kate Rohrbaugh, 1691:How Does the Peace Corps Share America with the World?
• Brandie Taylor, 2370: Building a Training Curriculum to Enhance Evaluation Capacity within an Organization Using the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as a Case Example

Thursday Concurrents 1:15pm-2:00pm

• Gail Barrington, 1633: Grounding the AEA Evaluator Competencies in the Broader Context of Evaluation Professionalization
• Rasha El-Beshti, 1286: Federal Consulting 101: Fundamental Skills and Capabilities for Independent Evaluation Consultants and Small Business Owners
• Nick Hart, Presidential Strand, 2588: Recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking
• Dale Hill, 3168: "Assessing M&E practice, evidence and Return on Investment (ROI) of interventions in complex emergency settings".

Thursday Concurrents 2:15pm-3:00pm

• Robin Kane, Carlisle Levine, 2187: How do we know what difference advocacy makes? Using contribution analysis in policy work
• Akashi Kaul, GSNE1: Bridging the Divide
• Julianne Manchester, 1122: Improving Program and Cost Effectiveness in Military and Veterans Prevention and Treatment Programs
• Brian Yates, 2180:Flavors and Purposes of Cost-Inclusive Evaluation: Making Evaluation Even More Useful to More Stakeholders

Thursday Concurrents 3:15pm-4:15pm

• Michelle Abraczinskas, YFE3: Youth Voices in Evaluation
• Heather Britt, Travis Mayo, 2731: Building Capacity for Evaluation Use in the United States Agency for International Development: The Road to Better Fit
• Melissa Chiappetta, 3246: Know What Works NOW (or quickly at least)
• Diana Epstein, Stephanie Shipman, 1207: Developing Evaluation Policies for Foreign Aid
• Annette Fay, MME2: Mixed Methods Evaluation and Social Issues
• Carlisle Levine, 1142: Advancing Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation Practice: Leveraging the Wisdom From the Field
• Kathryn Newcomer, Presidential Strand, 2105: Games we can play: experiences and prospects of applying gaming simulations in evaluation practice
• Cheryl Oros, Travis Rutledge, NPF4: Successful Tools and Strategies for Nonprofit Data Collection
• Linda Stern, 2734: Creating Organizational Space for Evaluative Learning in the Democracy Assistance Sector: Experiences from the National Democratic Institute
• Dana Wanzer, DVR1: Utilizing Data Visualization to Reduce Complexity and Enhance Understanding
• Dana Wanzer, PREK1211: Whose Voices Determine Success?

Thursday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:15pm

• Mary Hyde, Lily Zandniapour, 1872: Collecting Program Information from the Ground Up: Strategies for Building Organizational Evidence
• Cheryl Oros, 3354:Federal Evaluation Policy (OMB Perspective)
• Cheryl Oros, 1416:Program Design and Program Theory in Inter-agency and intra-agency Collaboraiton      

Thursday Topical Interest Group Business Meetings (1), 5:15pm – 6:00pm

• Stephen Axelrad, TIGBM35: Military and Veteran's Issues TIG Business Meeting
• Rodney Hopson, TIGBM26: Health Evaluation TIG Business Meeting: Evaluating a Transdisciplinary Collaborative Approach to Community-Engaged Research on Minority’s Men’s Health
• Juna Snow, TIGBM6:Cluster, Multi-site and Multi-level Evaluation TIG Business Meeting
  

Topical Interest Group Business Meetings (2), 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

• Heather Britt, TIGBM52: Systems in Evaluation TIG Business Meeting
• Svetlana Negroustoueva, TIGBM23: Feminist Issues in Evaluation TIG Business Meeting

Friday Concurrents 8:00am-9:30am

• Karen Allen, Lisa O’Rielly, Karen Synder, 3063: Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking: Filling the M&E Gaps for Effective Interventions
• Marcia Brown, Siobhan Green, 2023: Responsible Data Practices for Digital Development
• Melissa Chiappetta, 3034: New directions in using experiments for international evaluations
• Imara Crooms, 2563: Hidden Systems: Conducting Political Economy Analysis in Difficult Data Contexts
• Annette Fay, 3262: Lessons learned from designing and executing ex-post evaluations of international development programs
• Donna Mertens, 2249: The contribution of gender-responsive budgeting to national policy dialog
• Patricia Moore Shaffer, 2281: Shared Measurement and Strategic Learning: Arts Education Collective Impact Initiatives
• Kathryn Newcomer, 1966: Learning Together: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally to Build Evaluator and Evaluation Capacity
• Julia Rollison, GE4: We Evaluate Our Programs…But what do we learn?
• Brian Yates, Nick Hart, Presidential Strand, 2222: Adopting Economic Cost-Effectiveness Analyses to Enhance Evaluation Practices

Friday Concurrents 11:00am-11:45am

• Soumya Alva, NA1: Needs Assessments: Meeting Today's Organizational and International Challenges
• Teresa Derrick-Mills, 3260: Learning from Implementation Science to Improve Implementation Evaluation
• Bernadette Wright, 2324: Mapping for closing the gap between learning and doing

Friday Concurrents 1:45pm-3:15pm

• Cynthia Clapp-Wincek, Svetlana Negroustoueva, Presidential Strand, 2346: AEA's Role in EvalPartners’ Global Initiatives and EvalAgenda2020
• Cynthia Clapp-Wincek, 1577: Sustainable Development? Prove it! Improve it!
• Heather Dantzker, 2743: Integrating Environmental and Social Data to Improve Water Quality: Learning from Large-scale Evaluations in Minnesota and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
• Rebecca Frazier, 1997: How to Use a “Bundled” Evaluation Methodology to Translate Learning into Action for Grant-Makers and Smaller Programs and Non-Profits
• Rodney Hopson, Donna Mertens, 2984: The GEDI Legacy: Reflecting on Fifteen Years of Fostering Culturally Responsive Practices
• Patricia Moore Shaffer, 1606: Grant Portfolio Evaluation in the Arts
• Jana Sharp, 2445: Engaging Clients through the Art of Adult Learning

Friday Concurrents 3:30pm-4:15pm

• Stephen Axelrad, Julianne Manchester, MVE1: Evaluation Capacity Building for Military Health
• Denise Baer, Linda Stern, 2386: Learning in the Long Term: What happens when a donor asks for less frequent evaluation and reporting?
• Kerrin Barrett, Nick Zyznieuski, OL-ECB2: Bridging the Gap: Building New Evaluation Capacities
• Kerrin Barrett, Nick Zyznieuski, 3061: How do we know what’s really going on out there?: Remote Monitoring in Conflict-Affected Areas Using SurveyCTO
• Suzanne Callahan, ACA1: Utilizing Cultures of Learning in the Arts
• Cynthia Clapp-Wincek, Kathryn Newcomer, Presidential Strand, 2387: U.S. Actions Towards EvalAgenda2020
• Tammy Tippie, 2926: Evaluating Institutional & Mission Performance Across the Government: the U.S. Performance Improvement Council as a learner, advisor, and non-traditional evaluator
• Lisa Frehill, OL-ECB4: It's All About Relationships: Trust and Partnership in Evaluation Capacity Building

Friday Concurrents 4:30pm-5:15pm

• Cynthia Clapp-Wincek, 3111: Breaking Barriers to Participation and Inclusion in Peacebuilding Evaluation
• Kathryn Newcomer, 2474: Senior Latinx Evaluators Reflections on Actionable Culturally Responsive Evaluation Utilization
• Kate Rohrbaugh, ICCE8: Learning to Action across International Evaluation: Conflict, Post-Conflict and Peace
• Linda Stern, 2667: Restructuring Monitoring & Reporting to Improve Evidence-Based Adaptive Management and Programmatic Learning
• Dana Wanzer, 1258: Improving Youth Voice in Evaluations: Strategies for Collecting Better Survey Data from Youth

Friday Concurrents 5:30 pm – 6:15 pm

• Celeste Brubaker, 2407: Putting Money Where the Results Are: New Insights on Improving Outcomes by Tying Funding to Results Using Rigorous Evaluation
• Stephanie Cabell, Presidential Strand, 1826: Developing and Sustaining Communities of Practice (CoP): Creative Strategies for Learning, Engagement, and Inclusion
• Nick Hart, Patricia Moore Shaffer, Brian Yoder, 2639: Communicating About Evaluation With Senior Government Officials
• Mary Kane, 1930: Competency-based self-assessment for professional development and organizational improvement: an example from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
• Anne Laesecke, SNA2: Large Cross-Sector Partnerships
• William Pate, 3233: Improving outcome measurement
• Valerie Varela, 1222: Evaluation and social enterprise: Bridging the gap between two worlds

Friday Concurrents 6:30pm-7:15pm

• Soumya Alva, Qual3: Qualitative Methods in the Digital Age
• Tina Byenkya, Sarya Sok, 1723: Cultivating Evaluative Learning in Democratic and Empowerment Programs
• David Bernstein, Kathryn Newcomer, Presidential Strand 1390: Learning to Balance Public Policy/Political Preferences with Evaluation Best Practices
• Jayme Lorthridge, UIE2: Strategies and Tools for Multi-Stakeholders Systems Change Initiatives
• Gabriel Pina, HSE3: Demand-driven, Workflow Mapping, Consumer Feedback and Prevention

Saturday Concurrents 8:00am-9:00am

• Corey Adams, 2429: “Empowering Employees. Inspiring Change”: Informing Decision Making through the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey
• Nicholas Carrington, 2978: Using Data to Understand Community Conditions and Inform Programmatic Efforts
  
• Rasha El-Beshti, 1284: Setting a Precedent for Violence Prevention Practice: Building Evaluation Infrastructure and Learning from Developmental Evaluation
• Diana Epstein, 1412: Current Issues in Randomized Experiments
• Linda Stern, 3039: Data, Deliberation and Democracy: Promoting politically engaged citizens through evaluative research and data-rich programming
• Juha Uitto, 2426: Lessons from applying Rapid Impact Evaluation
• Christy Villalobos, 1999: Innovative Participatory and Empowering Evaluation Methods to Enhance Learning and Use
• Dana Wanzer, PREK125: Encouraging Engagement and Use: Supplementing Traditional Data Collection and Reporting      

Saturday Concurrents 9:15am-10:00am

• Shannon Griswold, 2607: The Holy Grail of Utilization-Focused Evaluation? Early Lessons from Piloting Developmental Evaluation in the USAID Context
• Travis Mayo, Kathryn Newcomer, Presidential Strand, 2127: Optimizing Monitoring Systems for Learning and Accountability – Lessons from USAID and Department of State
• William Pate, SW2: Learning from proven methods to develop new ways of thinking
• Katelyn Sedelmyer, 2475: Moving Beyond Accountability: Maryland’s Use of Data to Inform Decisions
• Bernadette Wright, 1184: The Art of Adaptation: Insights from Systems and Community Change Evaluation
• Lily Zandniapour, 1295: Mixing Apples With Oranges-- Using Meta-analysis To Synthesize Evaluations of a Diverse Portfolio: Example from the Social Innovation Fund

Saturday Concurrents 10:15am-11:00am

• Heather Britt, 2204: Guiding Principles for the Effective Use of Systems Thinking and Complexity Science in Evaluation: Final Phase of Development
• Giovanni Dazzo, 1858: Collaboratively Designing Theories and Measures of Change: Perspectives from a Human Rights Non-profit and Donor
• Sierra Frischknecht, Anne Laesecke, 2217:An Overview of the Methods, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned to Measuring Youth Leadership Development through the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) program
• Nils Junge, Svetlana Negroustoueva, 2898: Can you save the world through evaluation? What every international development consultant should know
• Beth Slater, 1861: Assessing Evidence Level --The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) Rubric for Identifying Interventions’ Levels of Evidence within a Tiered-Evidence Framework

Saturday Concurrents 11:15am-12:00pm

• Gail Barrington, 1625: Presenting the Final Draft of the AEA Evaluator Competencies
• Shannon Griswold, 1472: Challenges to adopting innovations in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (and potential solutions!)
• Travis Mayo, 3118: Evaluation for Learning in Practice
• Cheryl Oros, 2836: Meta-analysis: The How To for calculating effect sizes and conducting a successful analysis
• Kate Rohrbaugh, 1696: If an Evaluation Report Falls In a Forest, Does It Make a Sound?
• Beth Slater, 2786: Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation

Post-Conference Workshop - Half Day (Sat PM)

• Gail Barrington, 74: Using a Policy Framework to Develop Astute Recommendations: A Checklist and Case Study
• Donna Mertens, 71: Mixed methods design in evaluation

Whatever Sevetra Peoples does, she executes it with style, class and grace. Work included. Ms. Peoples currently works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This George Washington University graduate has been with the department for nearly five years within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Her roles and responsibilities include serving as a liaison to the Office of Health Policy team, members of the Department, and external stakeholders to coordinate the review and analysis of regulations and research as they relate to Medicare and Medicaid health insurance coverage. Her MPH also allowed her to work closely with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for three years within the Center for Mental Health Services to perform an environmental assessment of the Child Mental Health Initiatives for System of Care Grantees. 

Her evaluation work with SAMHSA is most profound as she researched and evaluated their System of Care Grantees readiness to incorporate a nutritional component into their program. Her interests include brain development, performance, and growth (focusing on nutrition). 

Refusing to sleep on a great opportunity, she joined WE the same day she learned of us- July 20, 2017. Sevetra cast her membership because it is a great way to connect with and learn from other evaluators. She believes, "As opportunities arise, we can support one another during our efforts." 

So far, the WE leadership team has been extremely supportive in helping me to become integrated in the "Evaluator" scene. They are successful in their outreach and the information within the Weekly Digest is most beneficial."

When Sevetra isn't hard at work, she's working even harder traveling the world and empowering youth as a mentor with Brainfood DC (An after school program for DC teens to learn life skills through participation in cooking demonstrations). Most importantly, since the age of seven, she has been gracing the stage as a performer of the great techniques of ballet, modern, jazz, and tap dance. She showcases her talent during the holidays at a local church with family and friends. If you want to learn more about Ms Peoples, follow her on Twitter @connectwithvee or connect the old fashion way at peoples.sevetra@gmail.com. 

Washington Evaluators is pleased to announce three recipients of the 2017 New Professional Scholarship. The scholarship aims to support new professionals in integrating evaluation practices and approaches within their respective organizations. 

“Through this scholarship opportunity, Washington Evaluators hopes to strengthen the sustainability of the evaluation community, by recruiting and helping to educate the next generation of evaluators,” said Washington Evaluators President Nick Hart. “The awardees reflect a growing desire in the DC community to embed evaluation in all types of activities and we look forward to their continued participation in the field.”

The scholarship was established in 2017 by the Washington Evaluators Board of Directors and designed through a task force led by Tamarah Moss from Howard University.

“We are excited to expose the awardees to integrated evaluation practices and approaches featured at the American Evaluation Association's annual conference and to their participation in our local evaluation community," Moss said.

Join us in congratulating the recipients of the Washington Evaluators 2017 scholarships:

• Allison Schachter, Pathfinder International, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in the Evidence to Action Project
  
• Tyler Spencer, The Grassroot Project, Founder and President
  
• Shannon Williams, Rebuilding Together, Knowledge Management and research Manager
  

Each will be participating in the American Evaluation Association's fall conference to learn more about our evaluation community, practices, and network.

In addition, Washington Evaluators is pleased to announce that $600 has been raised to support the Paul L. Johnson Scholarship Fund. The funds will support five graduate students working toward a degree in evaluation, or an evaluation-related field in attending the American Evaluation Association's fall conference. 

Dr. Kathy Newcomer was Washington Evaluators President from 1995 to 1997. She is currently serving as the President of the American Evaluation Association. This message is reprinted from the EVALTALK Discussion List.

I am absolutely delighted with the respect given evaluation in the final report of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policy and want to thank our AEA Evaluation Policy Task Force (EPTF) for their input into the deliberations and report. Under George Grob's leadership with Cheryl Oros' support, our EPTF ensured AEA provided useful and relevant input. AEA was covering the Commission closely, as strong evaluation policy is so very critical – now more than ever.

Special recognition goes to AEA's EPTF member and Washington Evaluators' President Nick Hart who served as the Policy Director of the Commission and who has a very good understanding of the field of evaluation which is reflected in the final report. The emphasis placed upon the importance of an evidence-building community, and the need for leadership and strengthened evidence-building capacity in the federal government are especially significant for us all.

On September 21st AEA and Washington Evaluators will be hosting an event to discuss the implications for evaluation practice of the Commission’s recommendations, and we have invited many other professional associations with whom we have partnered during the Commission’s deliberations to join us in our session. This link provides information on the location and timing of the event: http://washingtonevaluators.org/event-2642961

In addition, a presidential strand session at our annual conference will be devoted to the Commission’s findings and recommendations with the Commission’s chair and co-chair speaking, and this session will be live-streamed (pro bono) for anyone who will not be in attendance at the conference.

I am extremely proud of AEA’s role in ensuring the great attention placed on evaluation by the Commission!

And relatedly, our AEA Competencies Task Force has made great strides. The draft competencies they had drafted (on AEA’s website) provide a sound basis for professionalization of our profession. The Task Force has taken an extremely deliberative and inclusive approach to validate the competencies, which will be culminating with a survey of our members very soon. I take great pride in the comprehensive and careful approach to professionalization our Competencies Task Force has taken under the wise leadership of Jean King! Thank you!

Both AEA’s Evaluation Policy Task Force and Competencies Task Force are comprised of many AEA members who work strategically and consistently on behalf our members to support our profession!

Warmest regards,

Kathy Newcomer, AEA 2017 President

Bad to the Bone

On the day he was born... it was obvious that Dr. Brian Yates was "bad to the bone".... but in a goodway.  He's a tenured professor and cost-inclusive researcher and writer (for 41 years) by day, and a free-spirited motorcyclist that hits the open road with his Honda Goldwing whenever he gets a chance. 

Dr. Yates is a full-time tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at American University. He uses his doctorate degree from Stanford to teach online courses in Health Psychology, Theories of Personality, and Self-Management. His staff of graduate students conducts research on the relationships between the types, amounts, and value of resources consumed in providing human services, and the outcomes of those services. Some of the outcomes they measure are improved psychological health, reduced drug use, and enhanced quality of life. Other outcomes they examine are hoped-for reductions in use of health and criminal justice services, as well as increased earnings. Dr Yates' team conducts, presents, and publishes cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for human services, broadly defined.
When asked about casting his membership with WE he states, "I wanted to have often and locally what I only got once a year at the AEA conference: camaraderie, support, and inspiration from fellow evaluators of diverse sorts." WE has provided opportunities for him to learn more about different types and applications of evaluation. It also gives his graduate students opportunities to connect with other students doing evaluation throughout the Metropolitan area. In closing, he states "Life-work balance is really important. 

I enjoy working hard, but my personal relationships are essential." 

That is evident as he lives life to the fullest by riding his motorcycle into the sunset, learning the guitar and indulging in hand-dancing with his lovely partner at all the great Washington DC venues. 

A True Methodologist at Heart

Many people like to watch sports or play cards for fun in their spare time; but that is not Dr. Carey. You can find her reading the latest research methods books. With such a unique skill set, it's understandable why she must remain abreast of current literature. Martha Ann Carey is a social psychologist AND registered nurse with experience developing, implementing, and evaluating social science research for public health agencies of the U.S. government. After receiving her diploma in nursing from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in 1960, she attended Loyola University of Chicago School of Nursing, graduating with a BS in Nursing in 1963. Later she received a PhD In Psychology (Social) from the Graduate Center of CUNY in 1987, with a focus on statistics and research methods.  

This busy mother of four has worked with agencies including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Government Accountability Office. She has developed support for and overseen the progress of research programs, as well as the review of thousands of grant applications. 

As an expert in research design and qualitative methods courses (doctoral education and nursing programs), Carey served as an investigator for federally funded grants. Her international work includes plenary and invited panel presentations and qualitative research workshops in Thailand, South Korea, England, Australia, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mexico, and Canada. Supported by a U.S. Public Health Services International Fellowship Award in 1998, she was the first fellow at the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology in Edmonton, Canada. Currently, she works with nonprofit organizations and mentors researchers through Kells Consulting, a research and training firm in Pennsylvania.

She's a long time "WE-er." Now she is We's Treasurer. (She is also Treasurer for Div. 52 (International Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA)). She's excited to be a part of the executive board and being part of a wise, professional group who  involved in challenging evaluation work.

You may find her playing the harp or growing roses in her spare time, but you definitely won't find her Tweeting or hanging out excessively on social media. She has a website but prefers not to attract attention to it until it receives a "complete makeover." However, you can stay connected with Dr Carey at marthaanncarey@kellsconsulting.com.