"No Researchers Allowed"
Imagine growing up in a community that was accustomed to researchers seeking their participation and making certain promises if they agreed to participate. Being told that if they participated, their data would change the community. These promises were rarely fulfilled. This was Kevin Jones' reality. This was the bitter truth that inspired him to enter the research field to become that change he wanted to see.
Mr Jones received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He also received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Currently, he is the Chief of Programs for the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (one of 18 Promise Neighborhoods funded by the Department of Education to create cradle to college/career pathways in areas of concentrated poverty). Two years ago he initially came on board to serve as the Director of Data and Evaluation, developing performance measurement systems to track individual and program level outcomes and measure program effectiveness. His ambition and expertise allowed him to excel and move into senior leadership.
As Chief of Programs, he is responsible for ensuring programs and strategies serve their highest goal to end multigenerational poverty in DC's Kenilworth-Parkside community. To accomplish this, he works closely with the Directors of Data and Evaluation, Education and Learning, and Family and Community Engagement Departments to ensure strategic alignment across functionalities and to ensure that programs and strategies are evaluated for impact.
Three years ago, Kevin joined Washington Evaluators to connect with DC's community of evaluators. As a new arrival to DC in 2012, it helped him get connected to DC socially and learn the local landscape through interactions with WE members. He also received an opportunity to visit manyDC neighborhoods, learn about the residents and strategies they desire for creating change in their communities. Today, he serves as Board Secretary.
Jones asserts "I've benefitted greatly from the WE trainings that I have attended...Additionally, participation with WE has helped me feel less isolated." Today, that isolation is gone and he's gaining new skills on how to manage more effectively Data and Evaluation teams, as well as individuals who are less familiar with evaluation tasks, goals and objectives. But most importantly, he is more focused on how to respectfully engage Black and Brown, LGBT and other underservedcommunities around research opportunities and careers in evaluation.
Like what you read? Connect with Mr Jones today! You can follow him on Twitter (@kevtrijones) or reach him at kevtrijo@gmail.com.
Fifteen current Washington Evaluators members will participate in the Eastern Evaluation Research Society's (EERS) annual conference from April 2-4, 2017, including nine members who will be presenting or chairing panels. EERS, another affiliate of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), is sponsoring its 40th annual conference with the theme "Evaluation Looking Forward: Transitioning from Past to Future."
Presenters:
Participants:
In addition to conference participants, three Washington Evaluators members are also Board members of EERS:
View the full #EERS17 Program here.
Watch Out Picasso, Here Comes Shaffer
Who says you can't be an evaluator while literally painting the town red? Dr. Shaffer is a great example of showing the world how it's done. With a formal education from the College of William & Mary, (Ph.D. in Educational Policy), University of Toronto, (M.A. in Curriculum Studies) and Brock University (B.A., Visual Arts), she is extremely successful balancing her passion for artistic expression and program evaluation. Patricia has been a Federal evaluator since 2010 and has worked for several agencies, including NASA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and completed a 6-month detail assignment at the Office of Management and Budgeting (OMB) as part of the President's Management Council Interagency Rotation Program. She currently works at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as the deputy director of its Research & Analysis office.
When she first joined the NEA in 2010, she became the agency's first program evaluator. When she returned to the agency in 2015 as its deputy director for research & analysis, she kicked off several evaluation initiatives, including the development of a nested theory of change for the NEA's creative placemaking initiative and oversight of an evaluation study of a national poetry recitation program. Keeping in mind that staff in small agencies wear many hats, she also wears the cap of the overseer of strategic planning and performance measurement.
WE events provide an ongoing professional development opportunity to learn more about evaluation approaches & methods and meet other evaluators. It also has provided an opportunity to meet some of her evaluation "heroes," such as Michael Quinn Patton. She particularly enjoyed the independent consultants' dinners, where she was able to connect with other likeminded budding entrepreneurs and build her small research firm (shafferevaluation.com) based in Alexandria, VA. Her firm specializes in evaluating educational initiatives across the country, including teacher education and professional development and district-based reform initiatives, especially in the subject areas of reading/literacy, STEM, and arts education.
With all that going on she still finds time to volunteer. In addition to serving as the Communications Chair for WE, she also serves as Treasurer for the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness.
Like many in the DMV, Patricia is a "business week resident.” Most weekends she returns home to the historic Williamsburg, VA, where she lives with her husband and teenage daughter. In her spare time she enjoys drawing and painting. Her artistic deftness has landed her work in public juried exhibitions. Watch out Picasso, here comes Shaffer. Patricia Moore Shaffer.
In her free time Melissa indulges her passion for the arts by volunteering for one of the Smithsonian museums at one of the information desks and playing the piano. Watch out Satie! She also enjoys going to the theatre, reading (H. Hesse, J. Winterson, N. Gaiman, Harry Potter, and currently C. R. Lee) and listening to Radiolab; Left, Right and Center; Studio 360 and On Being on public radio.
As a new WE member, she joined to learn from and contribute to the evaluation community. When asked how WE has impacted her professional life she states, "Washington Evaluators have interesting educational seminars such as "Understanding Pay for Success" and "Knowledge Brokering" and that help her keep in touch with updates in the field. Moreover, WE's great networking events help Melissa get a sense of the depth and breadth of evaluation work occurring.
If you need any data assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to our fellow evaluator at qrrkymay@gmail.com or melissa.c.chiu@census.gov.
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 AEA's website.
An Eye Toward 2017
From Kathy Newcomer, AEA President
Happy New Year! Thank you, AEA Members, for giving me this incredible opportunity to work with you to advance evaluation practice and our association! As I embark on this exhilarating journey, I am grateful for all the work that has gone before. Thank you, John Gargani, for leading our association, and thank you to our outgoing board members — Melvin Hall, Robin Miller, Donna Podems, and Stewart Donaldson — for all of your past and ongoing contributions. I look forward to welcoming and working with our new Board members — Rita Fierro, Veronica Olazabal, Deborah Rugg, and our President-Elect Leslie Goodyear! I am also delighted to continue working with our dedicated treasurer, Susan Tucker! We are fortunate to have such talented and committed evaluation professionals serving on the board, as TIG and affiliate leaders, and on working groups!
My goals for AEA over the coming year are to:
Recognizing that our society has experienced some wrenching moments of divisiveness and sorrow over the last two years, and that there is uncertainty in the current political landscape that affects public policies, I want to remind us that program evaluation presents a tool to help society learn about itself and how to act in the public interest. To quote our guiding principles: “Evaluators have obligations that encompass the public interest and good. These obligations are especially important when evaluators are supported by publicly-generated funds; but clear threats to the public good should never be ignored in any evaluation. Because the public interest and good are rarely the same as the interests of any particular group (including those of the client or funder), evaluators will usually have to go beyond analysis of particular stakeholder interests and consider the welfare of society as a whole.” This obligation is indeed our challenge moving forward, but I know evaluators are up to the task!
For example, consider that inequality and social immobility have been vexing challenges for public policy at all levels of government and society for decades, even generations. While evaluation itself will not unilaterally address the factors that cause these issues to persist, understanding the role of socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic diversity in our world can enhance the context-appropriateness of our evaluations, and contribute to more informed recommendations about the policies and programs we evaluate, ultimately contributing to more fair and just society. To engage our members and communities this year I am happy to announce that, thanks to the vision and leadership of Dr. Melvin Hall, AEA will convene three dialogues about the role of race and class in evaluation work and impact leading up to our November conference. The first of these dialogues will be held January 30 in Washington, D.C., followed by a second jointly convened with the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in San Antonio this May, and with CREA in Chicago in September — all culminating with a plenary at our November conference. We will live stream all three 90-minute dialogues, and have a special presentation at our Annual Conference in November in D.C.
As we continue to tackle the challenges faced by evaluators, intentional and strategic professionalization of our field is needed now more than ever. I will continue to work closely with our Competencies Task Force to develop our next steps in getting our competencies promoted and used. Along with our active Evaluation Policy Task Force, we will work to support and encourage the support of longer-term evaluation infrastructure that supports a range of methods as part of professionalization of evaluation.
Our TIGS and affiliates are key partners in professionalization efforts, and I will work closely with both sets of leaders to ensure we support collaborative initiatives. For example, I will work with the AEA management team, TIGs and affiliate leaders to support them in hosting more regional conferences, such as those pioneered by affiliates like the Eastern Evaluation Research Society (EERS), the Oregon Program Evaluators Network (OPEN), the Arizona Evaluation Network (AZENet), and others!
I have already begun collaborating with our fellow evaluation associations and key groups within the International Organizations of Evaluation, such as EVAL YOUTH, in endeavors such as EVAL YOUTH’s recent and highly successful Virtual Conference on December 2.
"From Learning to Action" is the theme of our Annual Conference, and in line with this theme, I challenge our members to:
My door and ears are always open and I welcome engaging with our members to learn how AEA can better serve us and promote evaluation practice and evidence-informed policy and practice! Despite the challenges we may face, we are up to it! We have the capacity and skills to help society learn from evaluation! Please help me foster membership engagement — contact me at president@eval.org.
Rocking Out With David J. Bernstein Do you know any rock stars? If not, let me introduce you to Washington Evaluator's Past-President David J. Bernstein, who has met quite a few and seen many, many more in concert.David is a two-time George Washington University alumnus (MPA and Ph.D.) who is a Senior Study Director with Westat, an employee-owned social science research company based in Rockville, Maryland. He has been with Westat since 2005. There he plans and conducts contracted evaluations and performance measurement activities. Most of the funding for his projects comes from federal agencies such as the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living. David also conducts evaluations for state government agencies and associations. His work covers the entire evaluation planning cycle, from helping clients develop strategic plans, set up performance monitoring systems, designing evaluations, collecting data (often with the assistance of the evaluand and stakeholders), analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, writing reports, and presenting evaluation results to clients and stakeholders. Although he isn't a founding member of WE, he has been involved as a member off and on since the mid 1980's. According to David, "WE has provided me with tremendous networking and leadership opportunities. Serving as President of WE has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional career. I've met some wonderful friends, learned a lot about the evaluation field, and enjoyed the opportunity to give back to a profession that I have found so fulfilling." His membership in WE was an outgrowth of his American Evaluation Association (AEA) activities. As a founding member of AEA, he has been active in Topical Interest Groups (TIG) such as the Government Evaluation TIG and the Graduate Student and New Evaluator TIG, and served as the Founding Chair for both. David has also served on a number of AEA task forces and working groups. Wanting to expand his professional participation, he knew that Washington Evaluators provided services including networking and professional development activities year-round, and would be a good “evaluator’s water cooler” through which to spend time with fellow evaluators. David's parting words are, "I encourage all of WE's members to get more involved. Involvement is what keeps a volunteer organization for professional evaluators (VOPE) like WE going, and your contributions will pay dividends in terms of professional growth and connections." When David isn't doing "The WE thing, he is an avid concert-goer and photographer. You can catch him at live rock concerts snapping (his camera), clapping (his hands), and singing along. He has seen rock icon Bruce Springsteen 48 times in multiple states. If you want to know more about David or attend an awesome rock concert, you can reach him at davidbernstein@westat.com or follow him on Twitter at @DJBernstein.
Rocking Out With David J. Bernstein
Do you know any rock stars? If not, let me introduce you to Washington Evaluator's Past-President David J. Bernstein, who has met quite a few and seen many, many more in concert.David is a two-time George Washington University alumnus (MPA and Ph.D.) who is a Senior Study Director with Westat, an employee-owned social science research company based in Rockville, Maryland. He has been with Westat since 2005. There he plans and conducts contracted evaluations and performance measurement activities. Most of the funding for his projects comes from federal agencies such as the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living. David also conducts evaluations for state government agencies and associations. His work covers the entire evaluation planning cycle, from helping clients develop strategic plans, set up performance monitoring systems, designing evaluations, collecting data (often with the assistance of the evaluand and stakeholders), analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, writing reports, and presenting evaluation results to clients and stakeholders.
Although he isn't a founding member of WE, he has been involved as a member off and on since the mid 1980's. According to David, "WE has provided me with tremendous networking and leadership opportunities. Serving as President of WE has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional career. I've met some wonderful friends, learned a lot about the evaluation field, and enjoyed the opportunity to give back to a profession that I have found so fulfilling." His membership in WE was an outgrowth of his American Evaluation Association (AEA) activities. As a founding member of AEA, he has been active in Topical Interest Groups (TIG) such as the Government Evaluation TIG and the Graduate Student and New Evaluator TIG, and served as the Founding Chair for both. David has also served on a number of AEA task forces and working groups. Wanting to expand his professional participation, he knew that Washington Evaluators provided services including networking and professional development activities year-round, and would be a good “evaluator’s water cooler” through which to spend time with fellow evaluators.
David's parting words are, "I encourage all of WE's members to get more involved. Involvement is what keeps a volunteer organization for professional evaluators (VOPE) like WE going, and your contributions will pay dividends in terms of professional growth and connections."
When David isn't doing "The WE thing, he is an avid concert-goer and photographer. You can catch him at live rock concerts snapping (his camera), clapping (his hands), and singing along. He has seen rock icon Bruce Springsteen 48 times in multiple states. If you want to know more about David or attend an awesome rock concert, you can reach him at davidbernstein@westat.com or follow him on Twitter at @DJBernstein.
Diversity Matters
When asked why did she join WE this past August, she shared that she wanted to network with others in the area who do evaluation while she resides in Washington, DC for her fellowship. She states, "WE seems like a really great group of people! I really enjoyed meeting everyone at my first meeting and it was great to see the diversity in backgrounds and expertise of the group. I was able to share contact information with the members present and I hope this will lead to future professional collaborations".
In her free time, this Goldsboro, North Carolina, native enjoys traveling, exotic cuisine, reality TV (America's Next Top Evaluator...has a ring to it) and spending time with friends. She is currently Director of a non-profit that supports females in STEM and currently chairing the national NOBCChE (National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers) conference. She constantly shows her "Aggie Pride!" through mentoring and outreach efforts.
Looking for Iris? She's definitely not hard to find. You may contact her at irisrwag@yahoo.com, follow her on Twitter @IrisRWagstaff or connect on LinkedIn.
Dr. Nick Hart has worked in the field of program evaluation for nearly a decade, collaborating with government agencies and local organizations alike to improve evaluation capacity. He was drawn to evaluation practice by a desire to encourage public environmental programs to continually learn to improve their effectiveness. Through a previous role in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Nick had the opportunity to work with multiple Federal agencies in developing evaluation agendas and obtaining critical resources for conducting evaluation.
Dr. Hart's recent research on "Evaluation at EPA" challenged existing notions of evaluation capacity within government institutions, positing that new frameworks are needed to consider unique contextual circumstances that are relevant for large, complex, regulatory organizations. In "Evaluation at EPA," Dr. Hart suggests that evaluation production within government institutions like EPA may be limited by a short "evaluation window," or a brief point in time in which facilitators of evaluation must converge in order to overcome the more commonly identified barriers to production.
The "struggle for evaluation capacity and institutionalism theory," Hart writes, "[is] to rationalize how governmental organizations can keep the 'evaluation window' open without mandating evaluation in a way that agencies are no longer willing to exercise the learning opportunities evaluation can provide."
Dr. Hart joined Washington Evaluators four years ago and has been active in the organization's leadership ever since, first as WE's Treasurer and currently as President-Elect. He will become the President of Washington Evaluators in January 2017. In addition, he is a board member of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, another AEA affiliate, and serves on the American Evaluation Association's Evaluation Policy Task Force.
"WE provides really important and needed services to the evaluation community here in DC," Dr. Hart said. "WE's many professional development brownbags provide a constant forum to learn new strategies being employed in the evaluation field and by a wide range of organizations. This shared knowledge about the state of the field is critical for thinking through future directions in evaluation policy and practice."
Dr. Hart is currently working as the Policy and Research Director for the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. You can learn more about him at www.nickhart.us or on Twitter at @nickrhart.
Kathleen Sciarini Answered the Call
It feels good to realize your calling, but doesn't it feel even BETTER to have the courage to answer the call? That describes Kathleen Sciarini, one of WE's newest members. Kathleen worked in the international development/humanitarian assistance sector over a decade, after obtaining her Bachelor of Social Work. She has primarily held roles in grants and program management at international NGOs, including the International Rescue Committee, as well as the American Red Cross. Kathleen spent the past five years working in Thailand and Sierra Leone, supporting projects which addressed displacement issues and on the Ebola emergency (with a focus on child protection).
She's no stranger to tracking program outcomes, developing indicators of success, monitoring program activities, conducting program reviews and reviewing program strategy. Operationalizing big picture ideas is one of her strengths, and she's always looking for opportunities to use her Spanish language skills.
She's been fortunate to work on multi-million dollar, multi-sector programs but also has quite a bit of experience working with small, foreign-based NGOs in several different countries with little infrastructure or resources to collect data and evaluate programming. Her current goal is to break into independent consulting and focus on program design and evaluation.
Kathleen cast her membership with the Washington Evaluators in July 2016, soon after attending this year's AEA Summer Institute, where she says, "I discovered my 'tribe'. When I returned to DC I wanted to continue connecting with this wonderful community of evaluators- the DC extension of the 'tribe' -and haven't been disappointed." She elaborated by stating, "In just a few short months I have met some incredible, supportive folks who have patiently answered my questions, provided advice and helped me on my path toward independent consulting."
Being too cool for Twitter, if you want to connect with Kathleen for support on evaluation bids, program design, or just to say hello, please don't hesitate to contact her at katiesciarini@yahoo.com. You may also reach her on LinkedIn.
Gail Vallance Barrington, President, Barrington Research Group, Inc.
2016 AEA Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award
Gail Vallance Barrington is a well-known Canadian evaluator, consultant, teacher, and writer. Since founding her consulting firm, Barrington, Research Group, Inc., in 1985, she has conducted over 130 program evaluation studies, and at one time managed a staff of 20. She still continues to practice mainly in the fields of education and health. Her work has won awards from AERA and CES, including the CES Award for Contribution to Evaluation in Canada in 2008.
Her love of teaching has been a continuing theme in her life. For the last ten years she has taught an online course on health services and systems evaluation for the Master's program at the Centre for Nursing and Health Studies at Athabasca University. Recently, she began teaching qualitative and mixed methods for the online Master's in Program Evaluation at Michigan State University. In 2017, she will teach a course on program evaluation for the Masters of Education in Health Sciences Education at the University of Alberta. Dr. Barrington enhances the evaluation practice of other evaluators, especially independent consultants, through her many professional development contributions. Since the 1990's she has offered in-person workshops at annual conferences hosted by CES,AEA and EES, at the Summer Institute hosted by AEA and at the Claremont Graduate University Summer Professional Development series. In 2013, she started offering webinars on consulting skills and was named to the Dynamic Dozen, the top-rated presenters and trainers at AEA. Her webinar on intermediate consulting skills was a top-rated e-learning webinar in 2013. She has mentored many young evaluators and students over the years and continues to work with several on an individual basis.
Her love of writing is a continuing focus. She writes newsletter columns and blogs on evaluation and consulting topics. Her book, Consulting Start-up and Management: A Guide for Evaluators and Applied Researchers, (SAGE, 2012) remains a popular reference for those contemplating independent practice. She is a member of the editorial board for New Directions inEvaluation, and co-edited Issue #111 (2006) on Independent Evaluation Consulting with Dawn Hanson Smart.
Dr. Barrington has helped to shape our standards of excellence in evaluation practice through her ongoing leadership within AEA and CES. She served on the AEA Board of Directors (2006-2008) and chaired a number of committees including Ethics and Nominations. She is currently a member of the AEA Competencies Task Force. Simultaneously, she has supported CES in manycapacities,and is currently Vice President of the national CES Board of Directors and Chair of the Credentialing Board, responsible for the Credentialed Evaluator (CE) Designation.
She is a graduate of McGill University (BA) and Carleton University (MA) and holds a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Alberta (1981). She is a Credentialed Evaluator and a certified teacher. In 2014 she was made a Fellow of the Certified Management Consultants of Canada.
AEA remains central to her professional life. For more information see www.barringtonresearchgrp.com
Email: gbarrington@barringtonresearchgrp.com
“It has been a pleasure throughout my career to be a member of AEA, undoubtedly the most abiding resource in the development of my practice. The many mentors,colleagues and friends I have gained through AEA have inspired me to achieve much more than I ever dreamed. It is to them, as well as to my nominators, that I say, Thank you!”
Valerie Caracelli, Senior Social Science Analyst, US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
2016 AEA Robert Ingle Service Award
Valerie Caracelli has been a professional evaluator for over 30 years. Much of her career has been at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she works in the Applied Research and Methods Team, in the Center for Evaluation Methods and Issues. In addition to conducting congressionally requested studies with Stephanie Shipman, she consults with other GAO Teams on evaluation design issues and assists in examining the quality of evaluation studies. She has been a member of the American Evaluation Association since its founding. With Jennifer Greene, her scholarly interests in mixed methods resulted in several articles that framed mixed methods evaluation designs (see for example, their co-edited volume, Advances in Mixed-Method Evaluation (NDE, no. 74). She has served as Chair of the Evaluation Use TIG, now known as the Use and Influence of Evaluation TIG, and maintains active engagement. In 2000, she and Hallie Preskill conducted a survey of evaluators about evaluation use. This led to a New Directions for Evaluation volume (NDE-no. 88) The Expanding Scope of Evaluation Use . Valerie has served as an informal ambassador for AEA. In 2002, she was an invited keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Associazione Italiana di Valutazione, and in 2005, she gave invited addresses/workshops at the Australasian Evaluation Society conference, Queensland Auditor-General's Office, and in Wellington, New Zealand. As a member of the AEA Board of Directors from 2007-2009, Valerie served as liaison to the Ethics Committee and was deeply involved in the development of additional case study training materials on the Guiding Principles for Evaluators.Valerie has been active in the Washington Evaluators, one of AEA's first local affiliates, for over 20 years. She has served as President of the organization, Secretary, Board member, Program Chair and currently as a program committee member. An interest in evaluation quality, metaevaluation and evaluation synthesis, shared with Leslie Cooksy, has led to several co-authored articles, most recently in NDE 138. Among other roles at conference sessions, Valerie has served AEA as co-chair of the local arrangements committee for D.C. based conferences and 2010 conference program co-chair. Like many of her peers, she has served on a variety of editorial boards, including Evaluation Practice/American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, and currently for Evaluation Review. She currently serves on AEA's Oral History Project Team which publishes articles in AJE on the professional development of scholars who have enlightened evaluation theory and practice. Valerie received her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 1979 and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 1988.
“I am filled with gratitude to my colleagues who supported me for the Robert Ingle Service Award. It is an honor to be part of the tradition of service which is a hallmark of the American Evaluation Association. I have been a member of AEA since its founding and it has become my professional home and family. Making AEA's mission, vision and values come to life is dependent, in part, on the volunteers who serve the association and work to have evaluation make a difference in our world. I am just one of many volunteers. I hope all those who have supported AEA behind and in front of the scenes will feel celebrated as part of this award I am receiving.”
Washington Evaluators Washington, DCcommunications@washingtonevaluators.org
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