Sharing Knowledge, Preparing Next-Generation Leaders: The Mentee-Mentor Initiative for Cost-Inclusive Evaluators

A Mentee-Mentor Initiative (MMI) began in early 2025 to provide informal, extra-institutional support and training to new and student evaluators seeking to include costs in their evaluations. An initial organizational meeting yielded a small, growing group of mentees and mentors, a website, and a potential conduit for increased membership in AEA as well as the Costs, Effectiveness, Benefits, and Economics (CEBE) Topical Interest Group (TIG). The conference gathering proposed provides opportunities for adding mentees and mentors to MMI as well as providing advice to other TIGs, and potentially to AEA more generally, about starting, growing, and sustaining mentoring initiatives. One format that has worked well is a monthly mentee or mentor presentation of an evaluation or topic in evaluation, followed by considerable time for questions and answers. This presentation is preceding by recommended readings from a larger set of resources published by mentors and made freely available to mentees.