Date: Thursday, June 27, 2024
You may have noticed that AEA recently extended its deadline for nominations to the Board of Directors. When we reached out to individuals across the Association and encouraged them to self-nominate, among reasons given for not running for the board included not having enough information about what it means to serve on the AEA Board of Directors, not enough information the amount of time involved in serving on the AEA Board and lastly not having a clear understanding of what the AEA Board really does.
To address these concerns AEA held a Town Hall (you must be logged into your account to view recording) which discussed the nomination process and provided information on being a board member. AEA is also planning a session at the 2024 conference to provide members with more information about serving on the board. However, I’d like to share my experience of serving on the AEA Board as an encouragement to others who have thought about running for the board, but didn't this year, and encourage those who haven't considered running for the board to do so.
The AEA Board consist of thirteen members, including the Treasurer, the Past President, the President Elect and the President. Every year the membership elects three at large members and the President Elect. The Treasurer is elected every three years. The board has three main responsibilities its duty of loyalty, duty of care and duty of obedience. The fiduciary duty of obedience means that the board has a responsibility to ensure that AEA is abiding by the purpose of its activities as stated in its application to the IRS and is complying with state and federal laws. The fiduciary duty of care means that board members should give reasonable care and attention to their responsibility to provide organizational oversight. The fiduciary duty of loyalty of board members is the responsibility to act in the interests of AEA, those it serves, and those donating funds for operations, as opposed to one's self-interest.
Ultimately the Board of Directors is responsible for ensuring the continued existence and relevance of AEA and ensuring that decisions are made in the overall interest of AEA, which may at times differ from one’s personal feelings. The board typically meets three times a year in person and two to three times a year virtually. In-person meetings, including the one prior to the annual conference, are typically two full days. When needed, such as the meeting in August; where the board plans to draft much of the strategic plan based on the work that the consultants have been doing, the board will meet for three days. During the first quarter one of the major focuses of the board is related to review and approval of the budget for the upcoming year. In between meetings the Board members act as liaisons to working groups and task force and attend those meetings as non-voting members. Additional topics covered by the board this year included: hiring and the role of the consultants in the strategic planning process, the need to adjust the net asset ratio, the 2022- 2023 990, updating AEA’s core documents, the work of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Working Group, the right size for the annual conference, the Summer Institute, the importance of TIGs and board operations under policy governance. Board members also serve on special project “subcommittees” on topics of concern falling under the Board's purview such as the strategic planning working group. The time needed to serve on these various “committees” varies based on the charge and time of year. For example, when I served as the liaison to the Awards Committee there were some months when we only met for an hour or two. However, during the review period the committee met for three- or four-hours periods and as previously mentioned I gave no input concerning the selection of nominees. Having served on the Board through the pandemic, I believe that I along with the other members of the AEA Board have upheld the oath that I took when I became a board member. As we continue to develop the strategic plan this year and help ensure the viability of AEA I am particularly interested in how “AEA will continue to create shared professional programming of high value and quality that fosters belonging, inclusion, and professional growth for diverse and multi-disciplinary evaluators” and “how AEA will increase its balanced mix of contributed and earned income to support its short- and long-term financial needs, mitigate risk, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise” as indicated in the draft of strategic planning goals. These are some of the issues that upcoming AEA Boards will help to operationalize. Serving on the AEA Board definitely takes time, dedication and commitment. In the end it goes back to those main responsibilities I talked about earlier in this article. I hope that the next time you see the call for nominations you will consider submitting the nomination packet and the unique skills and perspective you could bring to the association.
By: Katie O’Toole, Consultant for Evaluation Policy Task Force
In May, AEA submitted a response to a request for information from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to inform the development of a federal government-wide public participation and community engagement (PPCE) framework. The framework aims to support the federal government’s efforts to meaningfully involve the public, including underserved communities, in government decision-making.
Engagement is fundamental to contemporary evaluation theory and practice, and working with and for underserved communities is central to the ethos of evaluation practice. AEA’s guiding principles are grounded in engagement concepts, with three out of five directly relating to engaging stakeholders to understand and incorporate the values and priorities of those being engaged in evaluations. Drawing from this expertise, AEA offered various recommendations on behalf of the evaluation community for OMB to consider in its PPCE framework.
Broadly, AEA emphasized that OMB’s future framework must both point agencies to mutually-beneficial engagement practices and incorporate requirements for engaging communities that have not historically been central to federal collaboration opportunities. AEA’s response also highlighted the need for federal agencies to have a strong evaluation function to effectively implement enhanced engagement practices – noting a PPCE framework should reiterate the role of evaluation as a core function of government, leverage existing evidence-building mechanisms and expertise within agencies, and emphasize the importance of sustained leadership support and investment to support these functions in service of engagement efforts.
More specifically, AEA called attention to the critical role of effective engagement plans, citing various resources from the evaluation community. AEA noted engagement plans should account for activities throughout the end-to-end process of an evaluation and have clear expectations, goals, and objectives. Plans should also account for the fact that meaningful engagement processes require time and trust, and agencies should explicitly consider the level of engagement they are able to do well – noting the time intensive process of trust building will, in at least some cases, best be viewed not as part of a single project, but as accumulating over time and projects. Further, AEA recommended providing clear value for participating or engaged communities, in terms of information, reward, or both, to support future engagement efforts, contributing to building trust and sustainable relationships between the federal government and the public.
OMB also requested feedback on how to ensure that its framework is co-developed with relevant communities. AEA recommended OMB should take deliberate steps to identify underserved groups that may not be connected to traditional federal notification mechanisms to ensure awareness of this engagement opportunity, and emphasized collaboration with such communities will be integral to developing inclusive, meaningful engagement methods. AEA’s response pointed to the topical interest groups (TIGs) use of participatory evaluation processes as a useful example of AEA’s mechanisms for continuous, diverse engagement methods.
The White House’s steps to co-develop guidance to support more meaningful federal engagement with the public, and the specific inclusion of underserved populations, is encouraging. The response from AEA provides OMB with an opportunity to leverage the evaluation community’s considerable expertise in engagement methods to ensure the future PPCE framework is thoughtfully and intentionally developed in a way that best serves both agencies and the public.
Read AEA’s full response here!
Welcoming all new and established authors! Please consider submitting a manuscript for publication under the newly re-launched International Advances in Evaluation Section of the American Journal of Evaluation (AJE). From tailoring designs to local systems to interrogating the power dynamics in the evaluation of development aid, contributions to this section transcend geography, context, culture, method, and approaches, highlighting how our evaluation practice navigates our interconnected world. We welcome manuscripts drawing from empirical data, but also practice experience, and reflections on learning-through-doing. We particularly welcome submissions from the Global South and those underrepresented in global academic scholarship, such as evaluation practitioners. For more information, please contact the Section Editors, Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa (Caitlin.Mapitsa@wits.ac.za) and Alysson Akiko Oakley (aoakley@pactworld.org).
As the academic year draws to a close, AEA wants to take a moment to recognize all the hard work and dedication of those graduating. Congratulations to all AEA members celebrating academic achievements this year, including the following 2024 graduates:
Damilola Ajayi
Joel America
Abby Beausir
Mia Chakroun
Mary Andree Darnall
Sarah Douville
Cheryl Endres
Doris Espelien
Sandra Anti Eyiah
Katlynn Fisher
Abi Karlin-Resnick
Natali Levin Schwartz
Aliza Lipman
Lin Ma
Joseph Miller
Nia Mitchell
Ted Myers
Onyinyechukwu Onwuka du Bruyn
Syd Overtoom
François-Daniel Portelance
Keyiana Puryear
Yasemin Simsek
Parmveer Singh
Sohail Sukhera
Nicolas Uwitonze
Elizabeth Zagata
AEA extends a huge congratulations to the 2023-2024 Graduate Education Diversity Internship cohort! These amazing scholars have successfully completed this year’s program and are ready to represent the future of evaluation experts and champions of culturally responsive evaluation. GEDI20 attended Eval2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana, where they had the opportunity to participate in conference workshops, network with peers and leaders in AEA, and celebrate GEDI’s 20th anniversary with alumni and the community.
In January 2024, the scholars embarked on an exhilarating journey at the Winter Seminar in sunny San Diego, CA. Throughout their stay, they immersed themselves in additional training and coaching on evaluation projects and seized the opportunity to strengthen their bonds. Monthly virtual gatherings for webinars were filled with insights and inspiration from esteemed guest speakers like Dr. Frances Carter-Johnson. The AEA commemorated our remarkable achievements together at the thrilling in-person graduation ceremony held during the Summer Evaluation Institute in Washington, D.C. The future is bright, and we eagerly await the remarkable achievements of each scholar!
In 2023, AEA reintroduced our awards program and presented these distinguished honors at Evaluation 2023. Over the past few issues of the newsletter, AEA has spotlighted the recipients of last year’s awards. This month we spotlight the AEA Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award winner, Hazel Symonette!
Hazel Symonette, Program Development & Assessment Specialist Emerita, is Evaluation Researcher & Facilitator with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research/Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1998 to 2017, her work focused on mainstreaming and democratizing assessment/evaluation resources that advance diversity-grounded and equity-enabling personal transformation, organizational development and social justice change agendas. Those initiatives undergirded her yearlong cross-campus/cross-role communities of praxis for cultivating authentically inclusive and vibrantly responsive teaching, learning, living and working environments that are conducive to success for all.
Since 2017, her work focuses on Culturally Responsive, Equity-enabling Evaluation (CREE) capacity-building primarily for evaluators and researchers. Dr. Symonette is a UW Teaching Academy Fellow and has served as Social Justice Educator with the UW First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Program/Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives. Since 1993, she has been very active within the professional evaluation community. She was a member of the American Evaluation Association Board of Directors and served as Co-Chairs of AEA's Building Diversity Initiative and the Multi-Ethnic Issues in Evaluation Topical Interest Group as well as many other progressive change initiatives: most notably, the AEA Task Force for creating the Evaluator Competencies, the 2011 Guiding Principles for Evaluators Review Task Force and AEA’s Cultural Competence Statement. Since 2008, she has been a member of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation--initially appointed as AEA’s Representative followed by election to At-Large membership. Most joyfully, she served as the Trainer & Coach for AEA’s signature program—the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI): a program that she co-founded.
Stay tuned for the 2024 AEA Awards Recipients who will be announced in early fall and recognized at Evaluation 2024! Visit the AEA website to learn more about these exemplars in our field. Learn more.
New Directions for Evaluation (NDE):
@NewDirections4Eval has launched! New Directions for Evaluation (NDE) is now on social media. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to stay up to date on announcements, meet members of the NDE community, and flashback to previous issues and articles. We look forward to connecting with you! Check out our first post here!
Share your accomplishments with AEA! We are excited to introduce the AEA Publishing Corner, which will spotlight work published by our members. If you have a recent publication or professional accomplishment you would like to share, please submit it here.
Congratulations to Andrea Nelson Trice for the publication of her most recent book, Strong Together: Building Partnerships across Cultures in an Age of Distrust, published by Global Resilience.
The American Evaluation Association celebrates the life and honors the legacy of recently departed AEA member, Ricardo Alfonso Millett. We are saddened by his loss and ask that you join us in remembering him fondly.
Ricardo Alfonso Millett had a lifelong passion and commitment to personal integrity and social justice. These ideals were driving forces throughout his life. Ricardo did not shy away from speaking truth to power, whether it was on his college campus, the board room, or when he experienced or witnessed an injustice in his day-to-day life. Ricardo stood up and spoke out—that was his essence.
Born on May 10, 1945, in Santa Cruz area of Gamboa on the Panama Canal Zone, Ricardo was the third of five children born to Ometa (Chi-Chi) and William Millett. As a middle child he often complained that the birth of his beloved younger sister Eleanor some 14 months after him, robbed him of maternal attention. This was a running joke between them, with Eleanor “playing” the violin to his sad missive.
Ricardo—known as “Butch” to his family and childhood friends— often reflected on the conditions of his early childhood and how that impacted his values and life choices. Ricardo’s grandparents came from the Caribbean to work on the construction of the Panama Canal. Most Afro-Caribbean canal laborers faced barriers finding work on the Canal Zone following its completion. Many of them had to return to the Caribbean or to the cane fields of Cuba to find work. Not without considerable difficulty, others integrated into the Panamanian labor force when they were able to overcome language barriers and the overt racism of Panamanian society.
Ricardo’s father was born in Panama and was among the second generation of Afro-Caribbean workers to the Isthmus. He was fortunate to get a job in the Canal Zone as an oiler on one of the tugboats deployed for the seemingly constant effort of dredging the canal pathway. Being a ‘local worker’ (a Panamanian employee as opposed to a U.S. worker, who were predominantly Caucasian) in the Dredging Division maintenance crew allowed his father to request—and eventually receive—approval for family residential quarters in Gamboa. At that time in history, the Panama Canal Zone constituted a politically separate military, residential and governmental presence along the fifty miles of the canal- an apartheid system. It essentially created a separate country in the middle of the Republic of Panama— segregated by nationality, military affiliation and, not too subtly, by race. While the Canal administrators and US military personnel were mostly Caucasian US employees, The maintenance crew were mostly Panamanians of Afro-Caribbean descent. They were paid as low-skilled workers even though they often had skills that surpassed their supervisors. The residential townships and the payroll systems were highly segregated based on Gold (US-high) and Silver (Panamanian- low) rates. For Panamanians of Afro-Caribbean descent—being Black meant being marginalized. Swimming pools on the zone were segregated and there was not a pool in their community for Black people to use. As a result, Black youth often went swimming in the very dangerous waters of the Canal, where the undertow caused by the ships could prove to be deadly. On one particular very hot day, Ricardo and some of his friends decided they would cool off in the Canal. Even though he was a strong swimmer, the waters took Ricardo under, and without the intervention of one of his friends, he would have drowned. That kind of legal segregation of people and races stuck with Ricardo. Those kinds of politics stuck with Ricardo. It is those experiences that help shape the man he was to become.
At home with his family, Ricardo enjoyed a warm childhood with his brothers and sisters—Bobby, Billy, Eleanor and Makeda—filled with school, church, and community. The Millett’s were known in the community as committed students, athletes and student leaders. Ricardo played trumpet in the school orchestra, sang in the choir, played soccer, and academically was always near the top of his class.
One highlight of his childhood was playing Little League with MLB great Rod Carew. Ricardo frequently reminisced on his days as a youth baseball player -conveniently leaving out the part that his nickname was the Strike Out King- because when he came to bat, he either hit the ball or struck out!
Following his graduation from Paraiso High School in 1964, Ricardo very briefly attended Seminary. He found that the conservative theological teaching did not match his understanding of God, and quickly left. Throughout his life, he was very spiritual, but not a follower of organized religion. He maintained a great interest in religion and his personal library is filled with books on spiritual teachings. He was particularly inspired by the work of Howard Thurman.
Just weeks after he left the Seminary, he came to the United States to attend Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts as a Wien International Scholar. There he obtained a BA in Economics in 1968, followed by Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Similar to his experiences on Panama, Ricardo found the US to be strife with racial and political unrest- These were turbulent times in the US. As a graduate student in 1969, Ricardo would become a leader of the student occupation of Ford Hall at Brandeis that resulted in the creation of the African and Afro- American studies department increased numbers of Black faculty and students on campus. This was done at great personal risk of losing his scholarship and immigration status. This determination to put his beliefs and integrity first, and the impact of those decisions on his life would shape his professional career.
Soon after completing his doctorate in 1974, Ricardo got a position at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta) in their Research Department. There he was reintroduced to a smart, dynamic young woman from Chicago named Jan Stepto, who had briefly attended Brandeis as an undergraduate. Ricardo would jokingly tell people, “Jan walked into my class, and the rest is history.” Their professor/student relationship was quite the scandal at the school—her parents were even called by “concerned” University faculty. Despite those headwinds, they were married August 6, 1977, in Hyde Park, Chicago, and began their life together. In Boston, Ricardo held several positions—notably with Abt Associates, Boston University, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
In 1993, Ricardo’s professional career took the family from Boston to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he began a position at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. As Director of Program Evaluation, he focused on developing methodologies to give grantees and participants voice in the evaluation process, and to maximize the use of evaluation as an integral part of programming. In this role, Ricardo supported organizations all over the world, and this work brought him national and international recognition.
In the 2000, Ricardo came to Chicago to become President of the Woods Fund of Chicago. In 2005, he formed Millett & Associates to provide program evaluation and strategic planning consultant services to foundations and non- profits and was a Principal Associate with Community Science in the Washington, DC area.
Ricardo considered Chicago to be his second home and developed many close friendships during nearly 25 years of living in the city. He loved going out for drinks at the Ramada, playing poker with his Lamb’s Club brothers, and enjoying Christmas Eve with the Runners. A favorite summertime activity Ricardo enjoyed was sitting—often sleeping—on the front porch of the Martha’s Vineyard home the family has enjoyed for over 30 years. In later years Ricardo and Jan took what they called “adventure trips” and explored the less traveled areas of Spain, Uruguay, Cyprus and Suriname. He loved his three grandchildren, taking great pleasure in the time he spent with them.
Ricardo’s passion for social justice and love for life impacted many. In the words of a former Kellogg colleague, “Ricardo was my friend, my mentor and an exemplary professional in our field. He was brilliant, and more than that he was wise. I cannot think of another man for whom I have greater respect or—now—a warmer memory.”
Ricardo leaves his wife of 46 years, Jan Stepto Millett, his children Sundiata (Shereece Williams), Miguel (Sharitza Rivera), and Maya (Christopher Binns), and three grandchildren (Zoe, Theodore and Enrique). He was preceded in death by brothers Robert and William and is survived by sisters Eleanor Millett Coney (James Coney) and Makeda Kamara. Ricardo also leaves behind a host of nieces and nephews who he loved dearly.
“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”
~Howard Thurman
Evaluation Sustainability Plans: Why You Need one for your Next Evaluation Project by Eval Academy
Evaluations are essential for measuring program impact, but what happens after the final report? Ensuring long-term sustainability is the key to ongoing learning and improvement. In our recent article, we explore the importance of creating an Evaluation Sustainability Plan to keep your evaluation efforts relevant and effective long after submission.
In this article, you’ll discover key benefits of developing an Evaluation Sustainability Plan, including:
We also discuss essential components of an Evaluation Sustainability Plan including the need for:
Don't miss out on our top strategies for sustainable success, read the full article here: https://www.evalacademy.com/articles/evaluation-sustainability-plans-why-you-need-one-for-your-next-evaluation-project
About Eval Academy: Eval Academy is dedicated to empowering evaluators by providing practical insights, resources, and training to enhance evaluation practices. Whether you’re new to evaluation or an experienced professional, Eval Academy offers valuable tools and knowledge to support your work.
Discover more about creating effective Evaluation Sustainability Plans and elevate your evaluation skills at Eval Academy.
Registration for Evaluation 2024 will open in July! This year, AEA will focus on empowering voices, encouraging evaluators at all stages in their careers to bring forth new ideas, practices, and creative approaches to evaluation. Mark your calendars now to join AEA in Portland, OR, for our largest educational and networking event of the year!
Is your membership about to expire? Renew today to ensure you can access member registration rates!
NEW! Introduction to Qualitative Analysis
AEA is excited to launch our new on-demand course: Introduction to Qualitative Analysis: The Sort & Sift, Think & Shift Approach! This interactive course is designed for beginners and experienced evaluators who are seeking to build their skills and approaches in qualitative analysis. The course uses a hands-on approach, encouraging you to actively participate so the material can be absorbed and used to enhance your practice.
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AEA Focus Group eLearning Course
Make your next focus group a success! This course will help you prepare for and conduct focus groups, as well as analyze your data, summarize your findings, and create your final report. Access Now
Introduction to Evaluation 101
This hands-on, self-paced e-learning course uses case studies and simulations to teach the step-by-step framework for program evaluation. The tools and insights learned from Evaluation 101 will empower you to use evaluative thinking effectively and make an immediate and practical impact on your evaluation practice. Access Now
Coffee Break Archive
AEA members have exclusive, free access to all past Coffee Breaks listed on the Digital Knowledge Hub. Explore Coffee Breaks
What's new this month in the AEA Online Career Center? Explore the Online Career Center
AEA would like to recognize and thank some of its most longstanding members. Click here to view individuals who are celebrating 5+, 10+ and 20+ years with the association this month!
AEA would like to welcome those who have recently joined the association. Click here to view a list of AEA's newest members.
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