Creating Opportunities for Evaluation to Advance Racial Equity

Led by the Washington Evaluators, June 24, 12:00-1:30pm

On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order on “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” Several of the sections of the Executive Order have implications on how evaluations are designed, conducted, disseminated, and used. This Executive Order has set the stage along with many other activities in the backdrop that are, together, creating tremendous opportunities for evaluation to advance racial equity. This esteemed panel will discuss these unique opportunities and culturally responsive evaluation is so timely in the federal government. 

Discussant: Dr. Kathy Newcomer, Professor at George Washington University and WE Past President

Panelists:

• Dr. Nick Hart, President of the Data Foundation and WE Past President
• Dr. Terell P. Lasane, Supervisory Social Science Analyst at the US Government Accountability Office
• Dr. Katherine Dawes, Acting Evaluation Officer at the US Environmental Protection Agency

This event is open to Washington Evaluators members.

If you have questions about this event or questions for the panelists, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org. 

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Evaluation in the Service of Racial Equity: Getting Practical

Led by the Washington Evaluators, July 29, 12:00-1:30pm

Many of us in the evaluation profession are committed to using our practice to support racial equity and social justice. Concepts, frameworks, and terms such as multicultural validity, culturally responsive evaluation, transformative evaluation, equitable evaluation, and more, have excited us. In recent years, some foundations have started to add a requirement for adhering to equitable evaluation principles in their RFPs. Even if we agree on the importance of the principles, many of us wrestle with how to make them concrete and put them into everyday practice.

Transforming our practice to support racial equity is not something we can do with a framework, a tool, or a checklist, and it certainly won’t happen overnight. Conducting evaluation in service of racial equity is a practice and like any practice, it requires us to continuously learn, hone, and improve our knowledge and skills. This workshop will focus on one aspect of the practice—how to use a systems lens in our practice to help our clients dissect and diagnose the symptoms, structures, and linkages that perpetuate racial inequity for communities that have been historically marginalized and continue to be marginalized today. We will use hands-on exercises to help workshop participants engage with this lens.

There are no easy answers when it comes to evaluation in the service of racial equity. This workshop will not provide you with a neatly packaged set of solutions. Instead, it will probably raise more questions and challenges, which is inevitable because we are dealing with implicit biases that have seeped into our scientific training for generations. This has in turn created an ecosystem of funders, evaluation practitioners, and evaluation consumers that unintentionally perpetuate the status quo. Join Kien Lee and Brandon Coffee-Borden in a process—albeit brief and virtual—to strengthen our collective practice of evaluation in service of racial equity as we challenge and help each other to get better at it.

This event is open to WE members.

If you have questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Designing Accessible Data Visualizations: 10 Quick Wins

Led by the Washington Evaluators, August 25, 3:00-4:00pm

Accessibility doesn’t need to take all day. And accessibility shouldn’t just be a box-checking exercise to satisfy paperwork requirements.

Meet, Dine, & Connect with our 2021 WE President!

Led by the Washington Evaluators, September 7, 6:00-7:00pm

Back by popular demand! Bring your own dinner and join us for a virtual networking dinner to meet our 2021 WE President, Beeta Tahmassebi! Get to know Beeta's vision for WE in 2021 and connect with other evaluators. 

During this dinner, participants will have the opportunity to meet fellow evaluators, discuss the state of the profession, and offer suggestions for improving the larger WE community and the profession. This event will have a particular focus on all things related to mentoring in evaluation. Bryce Leary, WE Mentor Minutes Coordinator, will be featured as a special guest!

This event is open and free for WE members. If you have questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Evaluation Without Borders: Closing Event

Led by the Washington Evaluators, November 17, 12:00-1:30pm

Evaluation Without Borders (EWB) aims to match evaluators with community-based organizations and nonprofits seeking program planning, measurement, and evaluation services. For each pro bono project, a EWB Coordinator develops a team of DC-based evaluators interested in providing services. Teams will work on projects that vary based on the needs and assets of each nonprofit and community-based organization.

This event is open to Washington Evaluators members. It is an opportunity for the evaluator volunteers and nonprofit partners to share their experience and final products from the EWB pairings. 

If you have questions about this event, please email communityengagement@washingtonevaluators.org.

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.

Please join the Washington Evaluators for our monthly meeting. Members and non-members are welcome. Please note that Board meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.

Location: Online. Zoom link will be sent to those who register. 

Time: 6:30-8:00 pm

Agenda: 

1. Welcome and Agenda Review 

2. Governance:

• Approval of last months meeting minutes (Secretary)
• Review of monthly financials (Treasurer)

3. Update on Strategic Planning 

4. Committee Updates:

• Programming 
• Community Engagement (Mentor Minutes, EWB, Scholarships)
• Communications 
• Membership

5. Board Action Items (if any)

For questions about this event, please email programs@washingtonevaluators.org.