New EPTF Member Announcement

Date: Thursday, September 29, 2022

Leslie Fierro, Gregory Phillips Join EPTF as New Members

The Evaluation Policy Task Force (EPTF), the driving force behind AEA’s influence on evaluation-related policy on the federal level, has selected two new members: Leslie Fierro and Gregory Phillips II. Fierro and Phillips bring their extensive experience in federal evaluation practice and policies, unique perspectives, and diverse backgrounds to the group. As well-respected members and leaders in the evaluation community, Fierro and Phillips will be welcome additions to the Task Force.

Leslie Fierro has had a range of experiences both as an evaluation practitioner and scholar. Fierro has worked in the public sector (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, International Development Research Centre), the private sector (Deloitte Consulting), and academia (Claremont Graduate University, McGill University). Fierro is currently the Sydney Duder Professor in Program Evaluation at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy and Associate Editor of English language articles for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. Fierro has also been active with the AEA, serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief for New Directions for Evaluation as well as Co-Chair for the Evaluation Policy topic interest group (TIG). Gregory Phillips II has been an evaluator for over a decade – he is currently an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and has served in a variety of leadership roles with AEA. In addition to being Associate Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation, Phillips is Chair of the LGBT Issues TIG and Program Chair of the Social Network Analysis in Evaluation TIG, affiliate faculty with the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA), and guest editor for a forthcoming special issue of New Directions for Evaluation on the topic of LGBTQ+ Evaluation.

In the Spring, EPTF put out a call for candidates and reviewed applicants based on criteria such as:

Commitment to supporting the mission and goals of AEA, particularly a commitment to federal evaluation policy.
Knowledge of and a history of prior involvement with the AEA.
Familiarity with the field of evaluation and capacity to understand and represent the field to others.
A broad perspective on evaluation and willingness to advocate for the many and diverse views of evaluation.
Knowledge of the federal policymaking process and experience with policy development initiatives in the Federal Government.
Experience with public presentations of evaluation to a variety of audiences.
Diversity of the Task Force and representativeness of the breadth of members and interests of AEA, including prior AEA GEDI participants.
Ability to work in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

The Task Force intends to hold another call for new members in the coming months. EPTF is chaired by Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation, who has over a decade of experience working on evaluation policy issues in the federal government. Other EPTF members continuing in 2022 include: Mel Mark, Katherine Dawes, Kathryn Newcomer, Lisa Aponte-Soto, Diana Epstein, Demetra Nightengale, and Nicky Bowman.