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| April 2016 | Vol 19, Issue 4
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| Message from the Executive Director |  From Denise Roosendaal, AEA Executive Director
T opical Interest Groups (TIGs) are AEA's unique way of making a larger organization retain its intimacy in order to create a welcoming and nurturing environment for all members. Currently, AEA has over 7,200 members, and 4,244 members have joined at least one TIG. Members are eligible to join up to five TIGs and all membership types are welcome to join TIGs. The largest TIG has over a thousand members and the smallest has a dozen. There are more than 55 TIGs in the AEA structure.
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| Potent Presentations Initiative - Time for Spring Cleaning! | 
From Sheila B. Robinson, Potent Presentations Initiative Coordinator
I love throwing open the windows, getting fresh air, and cleaning out the spaces in my home that haven't seen the light of day in ages. It's also a great time to grab the laptop, step onto the back deck, and do a little electronic spring cleaning. Continue Reading |
| International Policy Update - AEA Appoints Nicky Bowman to New Global Network EvalIndigenous |
From Mike Hendricks, AEA Representative to the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), with contributions from Jim Rugh, EvalPartners Co-Coordinator
AEA President John Gargani has just appointed Dr. Nicole (Nicky) Bowman to be AEA's representative to the brand-new EvalPartners network EvalIndigenous. The stated goal of EvalIndigenous is to "recognize the different world views and strengths of indigenous evaluation practices in order to better allow indigenous peoples to lead and contribute to global evaluation practice and endeavors."
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| EVALSDGs Helps Ensure Evaluability of U.N. Sustainable Development Goals | 
From Thomas A. Schwandt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In a historic U.N. summit in September 2015, world leaders adopted the resolution "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. Governments throughout the world are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks to achieve the 17 goals, and countries have the primary responsibility for follow-up and review of the progress made in implementing the SDGs.
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| Walking the Talk with Amanda Sutter |
Are you familiar with AEA's values statement? What do these values mean to you in your service to AEA and in your own professional work? In this section, we ask a member of the AEA community to contribute her or his own reflections on the association's values.
AEA's Values Statement
The American Evaluation Association values excellence in evaluation practice, utilization of evaluation findings, and inclusion and diversity in the evaluation community.
i. We value high quality, ethically defensible, culturally responsive evaluation practices that lead to effective and humane organizations and ultimately to the enhancement of the public good.
ii. We value high quality, ethically defensible, culturally responsive evaluation practices that contribute to decision-making processes, program improvement, and policy formulation.
iii. We value a global and international evaluation community and understanding of evaluation practices.
iv. We value the continual development of evaluation professionals and the development of evaluators from under-represented groups.
v. We value inclusiveness and diversity, welcoming members at any point in their career, from any context, and representing a range of thought and approaches.
vi. We value efficient, effective, responsive, transparent, and socially responsible association operations.
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 Amanda Sutter is the evaluation and outcomes manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay and the co-chair of the Greater Boston Evaluation Network.Evaluation is a great many things. The beauty of being an evaluator is that you get to wear many hats and it is never boring. I love the diverse roles that I can play, from the relational to the technical. I love that some days are spent head-deep in data or report writing or DataViz, and that others are spent facilitating sessions to plan with the data, or presenting to bigwigs, or just being a willing ear for tired program staff. As a young evaluator, AEA has been instrumental as my professional home in helping me build my skills to support the causes I care about and to get me where I am in my career.
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| Call for Applications: AEA Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program (GEDI) - Deadline: Monday, June 20, 2016 | |
The American Evaluation Association welcomes applications for its Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program that provides paid internship and training opportunities during the academic year. The GEDI program works to engage and support students from groups traditionally under-represented in the field of evaluation. The goals of the GEDI Program are to:
- Expand the pool of graduate students of color and from other under-represented groups who have extended their research capacities to evaluation.
- Stimulate evaluation thinking concerning under-represented communities and culturally responsive evaluation.
- Deepen the evaluation profession's capacity to work in racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse settings.
Interns may come from a variety of disciplines, including public health, education, political science, anthropology, psychology, sociology, social work, and the natural sciences. Their commonality is a strong background in research skills, an interest in extending their capacities to the field of evaluation, and a commitment to thinking deeply about culturally responsive evaluation practice.
Continue Reading
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| We Want Your Feedback: AEA Newsletter Reader Survey |
We want to make sure this newsletter is meeting your needs, so we put together a very short (five-question) survey for you to share your feedback. Click here to take the survey. We will use the results to make changes to the newsletter in the future.
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| Meet Dominica McBride: Incoming Board Member-at-Large |
 Dr. Dominica McBride is founder/CEO of Become, Inc. She has conducted domestic and international program development and evaluation projects with marginalized communities. Dr. McBride has led various multicultural projects, infusing cultural responsiveness into her work, with a focus on community involvement and participatory approaches. She has designed and implemented workshops nationally, including trainings on cultural competence, program evaluation, leadership, team-building, wellness, and social and emotional intelligence for audiences including Goodwill Industries International Inc., prevention specialists, lawyers, mental health professionals, government employees, teachers, and community members. She has published articles and chapters on culturally responsive evaluation, substance abuse in the African-American community, cultural competence, prevention of risky behaviors in youth, prevention and human rights, HIV prevention in youth, cultural considerations in homicide-suicide, and cultural representations of Africa. Dr. McBride is also an adjunct professor at Loyola University and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and teaches diversity and program evaluation. She has received awards from the American Evaluation Association, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, The ARK of Saint Sabina, and the Bright Promises Foundation for her evaluation and development work. She has her Ph.D. in counseling psychology with a specialization in consultation from Arizona State University. In her ballot statement, Dominica stated: "In serving on the Board, I would hope to help AEA build on its progress and take steps forward in helping make evaluation, especially community-centered and accessible evaluation, more pervasive. I would love to help evaluation become more prevalent, to be done in communities and for organizations that may not have the resources or know-how, and to be appreciated by policymakers and directors alike. I hope to help craft policies for marketing and building capacity in evaluation in areas where it would most contribute to equity."
We welcome Dominica McBride and thank all who participated in the election process.
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| Announcing the 2015 AEA Enhancing the Public Good Award Winner |
The American Evaluation Association honored seven individuals at its 2015 Awards Luncheon in Chicago. Honored this year were recipients in six categories who are involved in cutting-edge evaluation/research initiatives that have impacted citizens around the world. We will spotlight each award winner in upcoming issues. In this issue, we extend our congratulations to Nancy MacPherson.
Nancy MacPherson, Managing Director, Evaluation, The Rockefeller Foundation
2015 AEA Enhancing the Public Good Award
 Nancy joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2008 as managing director of evaluation responsible for developing and managing the foundation-wide M&E system, including monitoring the outcomes and impact of the Foundation's work. Prior to her work with the Foundation she set up and managed the Program and Project Evaluation and Performance Assessment System for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) based in Geneva, Switzerland. Nancy has worked for more than 25 years in international development evaluation in Asia and Africa with a range of organizations, including the United Nations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, and not-for-profit organizations. She has played a key role in the establishment and nurturing of a number of global and regional development evaluation professional associations, notably, the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), and the South Asian Community of Evaluators (COE). Nancy was also a member of the teaching faculty for over 10 years at the World Bank's summer International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET). She holds a master's degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Switzerland, Canada, and the U.S.
"Throughout my career in international development in the multilateral and not-for-profit sectors and more recently in philanthropy I have worked to empower developing country evaluators to play leadership roles in shaping development agendas and investments. This award honors that aim, and I am grateful to the AEA for their recognition of the importance of developing country evaluation capacity and leadership in impacting the lives of the majority of the world's population." - Nancy MacPherson
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| AEA Call for Awards Nominations - Deadline: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 |
Nominations are now being accepted for the eight American Evaluation Association Awards. Please take this opportunity to acknowledge outstanding colleagues and outstanding work. Through identifying those who exemplify the very best in the field, we honor the practitioner and advance the discipline.
Aside from the Ingle Award, all awards are open to non-AEA members as a way to recognize contributions to the field. Self-nominations are accepted but should also be supported by a recommendation from an AEA member.
AEA awards recipients will be recognized at Evaluation 2016, to be held October 24-29 in Atlanta. The awards presentation will take place during the Awards Luncheon at the annual meeting. Recipients are announced in the American Journal of Evaluation and each winner will receive a complimentary year of membership to the American Evaluation Association.
All nominations must be completed and received in the AEA office by Tuesday, May 31, 2016 in order to be considered. Learn more here.
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| New Jobs & RFPs from AEA's Career Center |
- Officer Research Support at The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C.)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Sciences at Desert Research Institute (Reno, Nevada)
- Evaluation and Policy Advisor at Oregon Health Authority (Portland, Oregon)
- Research Development Manager at Committee for Children (Seattle, Washington)
- Evaluation Manager at Playworks (Oakland, California)
- Director of Program Fidelity at Minnesota Department of Human Services (St. Paul, Minnesota)
- Associate Researcher at University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas)
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| Welcome, New AEA Members! |
Click here to view a list of AEA's newest members. |
| About Us |
AEA is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of evaluation in all its forms.
The association's mission is to:
- Improve evaluation practices and methods.
- Increase evaluation use.
- Promote evaluation as a profession.
- Support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action.
phone: 1-202-367-1166 or 1-888-232-2275 (U.S. and Canada only)
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