EvaluLand

This episode I chat with Martha Brown, PhD about trauma-informed evaluation, but more specifically about how we as evaluators can help organizations become more trauma-informed. We talk about trauma, the SAMHSA model of trauma-informed work, and much more!

Martha talked about trauma-informed evaluation also on the Glass Frog podcast with Debbie Gowensmith and on the Community Possibilities podcast. Other resources mentioned include the AEA365 series on trauma-informed evaluation and the Center for Victims of Torture.

For an introductory, self-paced course to learn more about trauma and what it means to be trauma-informed, visit https://www.rjaeconsulting.com/becoming-trauma-informed-how-to-apply-the-principles-of-trauma-informed-care-to-your-life-work-and-community- Suggested donation is $75-99 - special module for evaluators.

[email protected]

Martha Brown is president and founder of RJAE Consulting and an active member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). She received her doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction from Florida Atlantic University in 2015 and is an accomplished author, evaluator, program designer, presenter, trainer, and teacher. Dr. Brown’s research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and edited books. She also authored the best-selling book, Creating Restorative Schools: Setting Schools Up to Succeed, available from Living Justice Press. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences on the topics of educational policy reform, restorative justice, arts education, and culturally responsive evaluation.

Martha’s content expertise is in trauma informed organizations and practices, restorative justice, and arts evaluation. She brings a unique blend of creativity, caring, passion, and technical skills to her work. Martha utilizes a restorative approach to her work as an evaluator, always placing relationships at the center of her work.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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I chat with Libby Smith and Tiffany Tovey, two of the three hosts of the Radical Re(imagining) podcast, to chat about what felt radical about the 2021 AEA virtual conference.

We'd love to hear from you! What felt radical to you about the conference? Feel free to add your reflections on LinkedIn or Twitter. Be sure to use the #Eval21 hashtag, and tag us in your reflections!

Twitter accounts:

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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Jennifer Puma and I talk about project management in evaluation, including how she manages evaluation projects from start to finish and how she brings her project management training into her organizations and with the clients she works with. We discuss things like scoping projects, setting up ad hoc meetings, how project management aligns with various types of budgeting approaches, and so much more!

Also, be sure to check out the Glass Frog Podcast, which is another evaluation-related podcast that I highly recommend!

As a reformed management consultant, Jennifer leverages more than 15 years of consulting and project management experience to manage program evaluations and research projects at Glass Frog. Her functional specialty is in the development and practical application of theories of change and evaluation frameworks. Jennifer holds a B.A. degree from The College of New Jersey and a M.P.A. degree from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and ridiculous rescue dog, Sammy.

Here is the John Oliver clip that Jen mentions as well: Nothing Good Happens in Excel. As Jen says, "When it comes to project management, we do some of our work in Excel and share with clients but are careful to check in, first, about their level of comfort with Excel. John Oliver's observation is funny because it's true."

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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Jennifer Bisgard and I talk about project management in evaluation, including how she manages evaluation projects from start to finish and useful tools in her company's practice. Jennifer has a wealth of information in her over 20 years of experience leading evaluation projects, and I learned a lot about how to better do this work from her. Khulisa has a wonderful library of resources including blog posts about QASP, analyzing WhatsApp data, and using rubrics. Every Tuesday they publish #EvalTuesdayTip.

Ms Jennifer Bisgard co-founded Khulisa Management Services in 1993. An expert in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and organisational development, she leads evaluations and capacity building assignments in the Education, Power, and Democracy and Governance sectors. Khulisa has about 100 staff, based in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lusaka, Mbabane, and Bethesda.

Prior to establishing Khulisa, Jennifer was the Senior Education Specialist at USAID/Pretoria from 1988 to 1993.

Ms Bisgard has served on boards for the: African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) and South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA). She is a current board member of BetterEvaluation.

Jennifer co-authored a chapter of “Evaluation Failures: 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned” published by Sage Publishers in August 2018. The book, edited by Kylie Hutchinson, includes a forward by Michael Quinn Paton.

She has a Master’s Degree in Social Change and Development from Johns Hopkins University.

She is an American but has been in South Africa for 33 years. She is married to Marc (a dual Dutch-South Africa citizen) and has three boys: Zuko (adopted, now 23); Dylan (18) and Thomas (14). The family is completed by Border Collie, Riley and Africanis, Milly.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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Elizabeth and I discuss her new independent consulting business (Elizabeth Grim Consulting LLC) and how she meets clients where they are, builds capacity and relationships, and leans into her values in the work. We also discuss Brene Brown's values exercise and another version of the exercise as a card deck, how we've embraced new ways of thinking about the world, and reporting in evaluation.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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_Note: Sorry for the poor audio quality on my end. Recording is hard... _

Nina and I discuss her incredible journey through evaluation from research analyst to independent consultant to founder and principal of her own evaluation consulting firm, Intention 2 Impact. We discuss starting up her business and how that's been going. Along the way, we also discuss her evaluation background, including her dissertation-in-progress on entrepreneurship in evaluation.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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I'm interviewed by James Pann, PhD about my latest research on evaluation study in the American Journal of Evaluation. We discuss the difference between research and evaluation, the pros and cons of professionalization, the definition of evaluation, and other evaluation related topics.

Link to the article in AJE

Link to the YouTube video of the interview

If you've got ideas for the podcast, or would like to be a guest on the podcast (students, practitioners, scholars, and others are all welcome!), then please email me at [email protected]

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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After chatting with folks from EvalYouth about the Global Mentoring Program, they suggested a series of podcast episodes on what evaluation looks like around the world.

This episode is one in which I chat with evaluators from the Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Caucasus (ECA) about what evaluation looks like in their region. I chat with Tamara Kabysh-Rybalka and Dana Reva, both of whom are involved with EvalYouth ECA, about their experiences evaluating in their region.

We discuss a variety of topics, including how they define evaluation, how their countries and region affects how evaluation is done, what valuing looks like in their region, professional ethical guidelines, stakeholder involvement, how people get into the field of evaluation, ECA Summer Institute and other training and networking opportunities, institutionalization of evaluation in ECA, regional policies related to evaluation, and more.

Dana Rev: Dana Reva is doing her masters studies in sociology at the moment. Dana assisted in monitoring several projects for IOM and has been volunteering in EvalYouth ECA Task Force I since 2019.

Tamara Kabysh-Rybalka: Tamara Kabysh-Rybalka started working in Monitoring and Evaluation field in 2017, has experience in a variety of USAID projects/programs, is involved in EvalYouth ECA since 2019, currently works in UNFPA in the SIDA funded project on gender equality.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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After chatting with folks from EvalYouth about the Global Mentoring Program, they suggested a series of podcast episodes on what evaluation looks like around the world.

This episode is one in which I chat with evaluators from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) about what evaluation looks like in their region. I chat with Hayat Askar and Sana Ben Salem about their experiences evaluating in their region, specifically Jordan and Tunisia, respectively.

We discuss a variety of topics, including how they define evaluation, how their countries and region affects how evaluation is done, what evaluation looks like in their contexts (purpose, approaches, stakeholder involvement, recommendations, use, etc.), interesting trends and things going on in their local VOPEs, how people get into the field of evaluation, and more.

Hayat Askar: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) professional with experience in the fields of Project Management, Data Visualization and Gender, working with various stakeholders from government, private sector and international organizations. Hayat is the Vice-president of Jordan Development Evaluation Association (EvalJordan), a co-lead in EvalSDGs Guidance Group and Eval4Action blog coordinator.

Sana Ben Salem: Sana Ben Salem is a PhD candidate in Management and strategy of companies with a focus on digital Business Models, focal point of the Tunisian Evaluation Network, IOCE EvalMENA Representative, former chair of the professional insertion working group with the RF-Ee and member of EvalYouth Task force1. She followed many training in the evaluation field (IPDET), in diplomacy, renewable energies and SDGs. She is also an Activist in climate change, involved in the island innovation network as a representative of the Island of Djerba in Tunisia.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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After chatting with folks from EvalYouth about the Global Mentoring Program, they suggested a series of podcast episodes on what evaluation looks like around the world.

This episode is one in which I chat with evaluators from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) about what evaluation looks like in their region. I chat with Claudia Olavarría and Gerardo Sánchez-Romero about evaluation in the LAC region. They are the co-chairs of EvalYouth LAC, which you can contact via Twitter, Facebook, or email via [email protected].

We discuss a variety of topics, including how they define evaluation, stakeholder involvement, the governmental contexts they work in (e.g., CONEVAL, Mideplan), the purpose of doing evaluation, evaluation designs, evaluation standards (Estándares de Evaluación para América Latina y el Caribe), Evaluación Participativa, training and education in evaluation, professionalization, Eval4Action, the SDG 2030 Agenda, Evaluation without Borders, Blue Marble evaluation, and more.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/

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