On July 7, an invitational letter from AEA President Jennifer Greene and myself was sent to the AEA membership, as well as to colleagues in other evaluation associations around the world. This launched the first phase of the International Listening Project (ILP) called for by the AEA Board as it seeks input to strategies for enhancing our engagement with evaluators, evaluation associations, and evaluation clients around the globe. As Jennifer pointed out in her introduction, the Board sees this initiative to be aligned with AEA's mission and values, specifically reflecting AEA's commitment to

valuing a global and international evaluation community and understanding of evaluation practices.

 As coordinator of the ILP, I want to remind you that there are several modalities for submitting your suggestions:  

1. The primary instrument for soliciting individual input is an online questionnaire. We invite you to go there now and submit your suggestions, if you haven't done so already. It only takes 10-15 minutes, depending on how creatively and extensively you respond to the open-ended questions.
2. Another modality for sharing is an interactive blog where multiple persons can offer their suggestions and comment on those of others. After you respond to the SurveyGizmo questionnaire, we invite you to go to the Wikispaces blog where you can join the discussions.  Check out the various pages and comments already posted and feel free to add your own.
3. Another mode would be to send your personal comments directly to me at [email protected]. 

We solicit your contributions in whatever form you choose. In order to accommodate those of you who may be motivated by this e-newsletter to respond to the survey, the deadline for the first round of input has been extended to August 5. 

An initial synthesis of some of the input received has already been posted to the Wikispaces blog, where participants have opportunities to provide feedback and contribute to the process of prioritizing the list of policy recommendations and potential activities. A draft summary report will be presented to the AEA Board by the end of August and it is anticipated that a final Board-approved report of the International Listening Project will be completed and disseminated by mid-October. There will then be opportunity for further direct involvement by members during a Think Tank discussion to be held Wednesday, November 2, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., at Evaluation 2011 in Anaheim, California.

Jim will be AEA's Thought Leader for the week of August 7-13, focusing on issues related to AEA's place and presence in the international arena. During the discussion forum, Jim will share preliminary survey results and welcomes member input.  

Go to AEA's Thought Leaders Discussion Series Web Page  

AEA's Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program graduated its seventh cohort of interns during June's AEA/CDC Summer Institute in Atlanta. Attendance at the Institute capped off a nine-month internship experience which included placement at an evaluation agency, the production of an evaluation report, attendance at two 4-day seminars as well as the AEA annual conference, and numerous assignments throughout the year designed to maximize their learning experience.

"Chelle and I are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an incredible group of students, and are quite pleased with the personal and professional growth they experienced over the course of the year," says Rita O'Sullivan, GEDI program co-chair (with Michelle Jay). Jay added, "The program's structure - laid by the program's founder, Dr. Rodney Hopson - continues to provide them with powerful learning opportunities designed to deepen their understanding of the field, of the vital importance of culturally responsive evaluation practice, and, most importantly, of how much the field and the organization has to gain from the knowledge, skills, and experiences the interns bring to the table."

Please join us in congratulating this year's graduating class! The 2010-2011 GEDI graduates are:

LeKisha M. Harris, University of Georgia

LeKisha interned with ICF Macro (Atlanta, Georgia), where she and her colleagues conducted evaluability assessments of initiatives considered to be "promising practices" in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity prevention.

Dawn Henderson, North Carolina State University

Dawn interned at Evaluation, Assessment and Policy Connection (Chapel Hill, NC), where she participated in an evaluation, sponsored by the National Y-USA, that sought to measure the program effectiveness of 40 YMCA programs.

Alison Mendoza, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Alison also interned at Evaluation, Assessment and Policy Connection, where she participated in process evaluation efforts around the Y-USA Educational Achievement Initiative.

Ebun Odeneye, University of Texas - Houston

Ebun interned at The University of Texas Prevention Research Center, where she participated in the formative evaluation of a collaborative effort between several tribal organizations to adapt and evaluate an evidence-based teen pregnancy/STI prevention program for middle-school students.

Yusuf Ransome, Columbia University

Yusuf interned with The Conversation Company (TCC) Group (New York), where he worked on multiple evaluation projects, but the bulk of his work was associated with the evaluation of Moishe House.

Christopher St. Vil, Howard University

Chris interned at Westat (Rockville, MD), where he participated in the evaluation of WFF's High Need Family (HNF) program, a permanent supportive housing program for homeless families.

Tamara Williams, University of Colorado-Boulder

Tamara interned with Community Health (Boulder, CO) where she conducted a needs assessment of the organization's existing sexual education content in terms of its relevance to female students of color.

Ciara Zachary, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Ciara interned with the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore, MD), where she participated in an evaluation of Elev8, a national initiative dedicated to ensuring that middle school students succeed in life and continue on to high school.

Go to AEA's GEDI Program page to learn more

Please welcome AEA's newest TIG. This TIG is intended to provide a community of support and collaboration for members with a mutual interest in community psychology and/or community-based research, action and evaluation. The Community Psychology Topical Interest Group is designed for community psychologists and allied community-based researchers and practitioners who share a common set of principles and values that influences both the content of their work and the methodologies employed.

Though a number of AEA TIGs are relevant to community psychologists and AEA members with an interest in community research and action and share common perspectives and methodologies, none are inclusive of the many principles, goals, guiding concepts, and competencies that are inherent in community psychology/community based practice.

"There are a number of community psychology practitioners who work as evaluators. This TIG will provide a regular, formalized opportunity for those of us with similar disciplinary roots and training to gather and share our work," says TIG organizer and co-chair Susan Wolfe. "It will also provide a venue for us to share our discipline within the larger field."

Many community psychologists and community-based researchers and practitioners work in evaluation, but often evaluation is done within the context of a larger project, such as prevention program development, program implementation and/or organizational capacity building. Program evaluation is one of several competencies that community psychologists develop, including needs assessment, community organizing, collaboration building, capacity building, program development, logic modeling, translating research to practice, advocacy, and program dissemination.

The primary goals of the new Community Psychology TIG are to:

• Provide a forum for discussion and collaboration for evaluators with community psychology training and/or a similar disciplinary orientation
• Support professional development
• Promote evaluations guided by Community Psychology principles, goals, and guiding concepts.
• Provide a linkage mechanism between the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA) that would promote membership for both organizations.

For those interested in the Community Psychology TIG, you may email Susan directly at [email protected]. 

Join us in welcoming the Texas Evaluation Network (TEN) as AEA's newest local affiliate.

The Texas Evaluation Network is established as a not-for-profit interdisciplinary organization for the purposes of promoting and advocating evaluation and building evaluation capacity; providing professional development opportunities for Texas evaluators; and establishing a venue for networking and the exchange of theoretical, methodological, and practical knowledge related to the field of evaluation. During Evaluation 2010, held last November in San Antonio, Texas, an exploratory meeting was convened to discuss the establishment of a statewide professional organization for evaluators. More than 30 individuals attended, representing a geographic cross-section of Texas evaluators as well as a variety of evaluation specialty areas such as education, health care, business, social services, international evaluation and independent consulting. It was agreed during the meeting that there was sufficient interest to create a Steering Committee to develop a framework for a new organization.

"The growing demand for evaluation expertise within our State has led us to pursue the establishment of the Texas Evaluation Network," says Steering Committee co-chairs Debra Stark and Ray Howard. "We believe that aligning this new organization with AEA not only strengthens its credibility but also provides the opportunity to collaborate with the AEA to promote and advocate for the evaluation profession and encourage opportunities for resource sharing, e.g. membership and event planning."

In the near future, TEN will be sending to all Texas AEA members specific information regarding the organization, its structure, and how to become a member. In the interim, you may visit their website or contact the co-chairs directly at [email protected] or [email protected].

Go to the TEN website 

AEA member Paul R. Brandon of the University of Hawaii's College of Education Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) was named the 2011 Research on Evaluation Distinguished Scholar by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He is the first recipient of this newly created sanctioned award, which will be given annually by the AERA Research on Evaluation Special Interest Group. The formal presentation of the award occurred in New Orleans at AERA's annual meeting.

If you have a news item you'd like to submit for consideration, feel free to forward to AEA's Communications Director at [email protected].

The Southeast Evaluation Association will host its 23^rd Annual Workshop, Biggest Bang for your Buck: Using Evaluation to Demonstrate Impact During Lean Times on Oct. 27-28 at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Florida.

The event includes a pre-workshop seminar by Liliana Rodriguez-Campos. Collaborative Evaluations Step-by-Step is offered as an interactive session that will share factors that facilitate and inhibit stakeholders' participation and address fundamental factors that must be mastered in order to succeed in collaborations. Liliana serves as Director of the Center for Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Measurement at the University of South Florida and is the Program Chair of AEA's Collaborative & Empowerment Topical Interest Group as well as a recipient of AEA's Marcia Guttentag Award.

A Call for Proposals is open through August 31. SEA is seeking speakers on a broad array of program and policy areas at the national, state and local levels including public administration and management, health and human services, criminal justice/juvenile justice, economic and workforce development, education, and not-for-profit issues.

Go to the SEA Website

• Field Coordinator/Analyst at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL, USA) 
• Sampling Consultant at World Vision International (USA and Any) 
• Senior CQI Analyst at Community Behavioral Health (Philadelphia, PA, USA)   
• Post-Graduate Fellow at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Seattle, WA, USA)
• Principal Management Auditor and Management Auditor at King County Auditor's Office (Seattle, WA, US)  
• Director, Brand Evaluation Portfolio at LTG Associates, Inc. (Takoma Park, MD, USA) 
• Waste Reduction Education Evaluation at Metro (Portland, OR, USA)  
• Evaluation Research Assistant at SmartStart Educational Consulting Services (Irvine, CA, USA)
• Part-time Research Analyst at University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT, USA) 
• Research Analyst-Evaluation at Westat (Rockville, MD, USA)

Descriptions for each of these positions, and many others, are available in AEA's Online Career Center. According to Google analytics, the Career Center received approximately 6,300 unique page views in the past month. It is an outstanding resource for posting your resume or position, or for finding your next employer, contractor or employee. Job hunting? You can also sign up to receive notifications of new position postings via email or RSS feed.

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