Board of Directors

2020 Board of Directors & Leadership

Beeta Tahmassebi is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at EnCompass LLC. In addition to running operations for The Evaluators’ Institute (TEI), a globally recognized evaluation training center, she oversees EnCompass’ Knowledge Management and Communications team, and manages evaluations and capacity-strengthening projects around the world. Ms. Tahmassebi has had the privilege of working as an evaluator across a wide range of client systems and organizations, from groups such as Save the Children and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to government agencies such as USAID, the State Department, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, UN Women, and the World Food Programme. Ms. Tahmassebi holds a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. In addition to her work with Washington Evaluators, Ms. Tahmassebi is a frequent presenter at American Evaluation Association conferences, and a member of the SIKM Leaders Community.

Josh is a Senior Officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts where he oversees evaluations of major environmental, economic, and health related initiatives. His evaluative roles focus on developing assessment plans and shaping learning questions, hiring/supporting independent consultants, ensuring the accessibility of study findings and recommendations, and safeguarding the integrity of Pew’s evaluation process. Josh also works across the organization to lead and advise on a range of learning initiatives and pilot projects, including: building the measurement capacity of local non-profits in the Philadelphia area; improving the processes by which programs wind-down and exit lines of work; and understanding how decision makers use research evidence generated by Pew programs. Before coming to Pew, Josh worked on research and evaluation projects in the areas of business ethics, human resources, and good government. He is on the faculty at American University and teaches applied graduate classes on how to develop useful theories of change and on how to conduct effective focus groups and interviews. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from American University, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in painting from Cornell University.

Katherine is a Monitoring and Evaluation Associate with PYXERA Global. In this capacity, she supports the organization’s Global Pro Bono practice area through impact measurement. Previously, Katherine worked at the United States Department of Agriculture where her focus areas included rural development and utilities, women in agriculture as well as faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. From 2011-2013, she served with the Peace Corps in Ukraine as a TEFL Volunteer and USAID Small Project Assistance Program Specialist. Katherine holds an MA from American University in International Relations as well as a BA from the University of Michigan where she double majored in Comparative Religion and English Language & Literature. She is proficient in Russian and Portuguese.

U.S. Department of State

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

Katie Pitts, Program Committee Chair

D.C. Department of Behavioral Health

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

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

Dr. Valerie Caracelli is a Senior Social Science Analyst in the Center for Evaluation Methods and Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Valerie assists in conducting congressionally requested studies and consults with GAO Teams on evaluation design issues. She has published in leading evaluation journals and has served on a variety of editorial review boards. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 1979 and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 1988. Valerie has been a member of the American Evaluation Association since its founding. 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.  She recently received the 2016 AEA Robert Ingle Service Award. Valerie has been active in the Washington Evaluators, one of AEA's first local affiliates, serving as board member and in other positions for over 20 years.

Charlie is an independent consultant based in D.C. who specializes in monitoring and evaluation and gender equality in international development projects. He has taught university courses in evaluation methodology and is a life-long student of data analytics and statistics. He has contributed to high-level US foreign policy, led reform of evidence utilization capacity of large and small institutions in the US and abroad, and was a founding faculty member of Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. His recent work has been diverse but is commonly related to utilizing M&E to mainstream gender and social equity into development projects (Water infrastructure for the World Bank, for example) and safeguarding beneficiaries from exploitation and abuse. More of his past professional information can be found on his Linkedin profile.

Bryce Leary, Mentor Minutes Coordinator

Graduate Student

Bryce Leary is a second-year graduate student studying International Development at American University’s School of International Service. His focus is monitoring and evaluation, and through his studies and research he gained both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills. This past summer as a Tinker-Walker Fellow, Bryce traveled to the Omaheke Region of Namibia. There he developed programs for out of school youth and engaged in skills development with the grassroots volunteers of Namibian Partnership Solutions. He served in Senegal as a Peace Corps Volunteer where he learned the value of building the capacity of local counterparts. As a member of Peace Corps' Data Reporting, Evaluation, and Monitoring Team he designed indicators and trained his colleagues in program design. Bryce looks forward to working in the evaluation field after graduation in May 2020 to promote improved development programming.

Erin is currently a Program Evaluation Research Analyst with the Research and Evaluation Unit within the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She has nine years of experience developing and implementing M&E systems to strengthen training and programmatic outcomes for international media development and information access programs. She worked with program staff to design data collection tools in line with monitoring and evaluation plans, including needs assessments, media organizational capacity building monitoring, media content analysis, knowledge and skills-based assessments, social network analyses, impact evaluation, and tools to visualize program impacts through interactive dashboards. She holds an MS from George Mason University in Educational Psychology focused on Testing, Assessment and Evaluation as well as a BA from the University of Georgia where she majored in Russian and French languages.

Laura serves as the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning at the Digital Impact Alliance, an independent program focused on the intersection of technology and international development housed at the UN Foundation. She originally joined DIAL as the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager in February 2018, building on her previous work at the nexus of international development, evaluation and innovation. At DIAL, Laura works with the program teams to define the key outcomes of their work and develop measurement and learning plans to track progress, identify our impact, and make course corrections as necessary. She also supports DIAL to serve as a pioneer in applying adaptive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) principles. Prior to joining DIAL, Laura served as the Innovation Program Manager at The QED Group and Research Assistant at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and began her career at the Management Sciences for Health (MSH), an international public health NGO. Laura has a Master’s in Global Human Development from Georgetown University and a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.