A SELF APPRAISAL FOR EVALUTIVE THINKING, Jalessa Noel Bryant
This capstone project/ GEDI Program Evaluation report details the use of a self-appraisal battery created to deeply interrogate evaluation work from a CR(E)E lens. Using my engagement in one project to beta test the battery, I detail three major aspects of each stage of the evaluative process: pedagogical aspects of skill development and training, mentorship in Culturally Responsive evaluative thinking, and answerability to all stages of CR(E)E evaluation. I used the results of the battery to form a theory of change and a theory of action for young and emerging evaluators (YEEs) to use as guides for their future learning and practice.
Navigating Change: An Emerging Evaluator’s Experience with Community Engagement and Shared Leadership, An Dang
In this presentation, I share my experience as a Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) intern with the CDC Foundation, where I contributed to evaluation initiatives aimed at strengthening organizational capacity and fostering learning. Through this role, I practiced culturally responsive evaluation in the shifting landscape of public health, while also learning to navigate changing times and balance the demands of graduate studies, internship responsibilities, and personal growth. My internship journey illustrates how transforming evaluation requires adapting practices to complex and evolving contexts; how engaging communities depends on honoring diverse perspectives in decision-making; and how sharing leadership emerges through collaboration, reflection, and mutual support. Lessons learned highlight the importance of resilience, adaptability, and intentional relationship-building during periods of uncertainty. As an emerging evaluator, I came to understand evaluation not only as a technical practice but also as a human one, shaped by equity, participation, and collaboration. Looking back, I was most confident when I knew the least, before realizing the depth and complexity of the field of evaluation. With the guidance of supervisors and mentors, I reframed this realization as an invitation to embrace evaluation as a lifelong learning process. This perspective underscores that evaluation requires humility as much as expertise and reminds us to remain open to growth, feedback, and new perspectives in building equitable, collaborative, and transformative practice.
Reflections on the Importance of Partner and Community Engagement in CREE, LaShanda Harbin
As a GEDI, I worked on two separate projects with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The first project focused on how to help social-emotional learning (SEL) providers in Wisconsin prove their alignment with federal evidence standards. This project was primarily technical assistance for SEL providers, and the team helped those providers articulate logic models and evaluation plans for their programs. The second and larger project was with a California-based educational organization. There were several evaluative goals with this project, including helping the organization develop an evaluation plan and a formal theory of action. While these projects had very different scopes and focuses, the team worked to maintain authentic community and partner engagement on both projects. Effective collaboration made each of these projects possible, although the team had to navigate collaboration in different ways. The SEL project required us to think about doing evaluation with teachers, school counselors, administrators, and SEL program providers. The California-based partnership required us to think about partnership with the organization as they navigated various local contexts and federally imposed hostilities. Each project, while very different from one another, reinforced the importance of working alongside communities when doing culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE).
Embedding Equity in Data: Creating an Organizational Equitable Data Guide ,Konul Karimova
This presentation shares the development of an Equitable Data Guide for FoodCorps, a national nonproft advancing children’s health, education, and well-being through food in schools. As part of the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program, this project responds to the need for organizational structures that translate values of equity into everyday evaluation practice. Guided by Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE), the project centers questions of power, representation, and narrative in data practices—particularly how data can either reproduce defcit-based framings or affirm the strengths, histories, and agency of the communities served. The Equitable Data Guide outlines principles and recommended practices for planning, collecting, analyzing, and communicating data in ways that uplift community voice, attend to cultural context, and make visible the systemic conditions shaping health and educational inequities. Resources reviewed include national frameworks on data equity and organizational tools for cultural humility and reflexivity. Recommendations highlight opportunities for evaluators to support capacity-building, embed equity checks across the data lifecycle, and collaboratively determine what “credible evidence” means in community-centered contexts. This session contributes to broader conversations on shifting power in evaluation by demonstrating how internal guidance documents can act as living tools for aligning practice with values.
Evaluating & Evolving: A Reflection of my GEDI Experience, Caitlin Ng, MA (she/her)
As a member of GEDI21, also known as SOULSTICE, I interned with WestEd, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that aims to improve the lives of children and adults at all ages of learning and development. WestEd is comprised of 13 distinct divisions, each focusing on different areas of research, development, and service to improve educational and social outcomes. My GEDI experience was situated within WestEd’s Early Childhood Learning and Development (ECLD) content area which supported the evaluation of Count Play Explore (CPE). CPE is a statewide STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) initiative for early childhood educators in California that seeks to improve STEAM mindsets and instructional practices through coaching and professional learning. My work focused on integrating Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE) principles to better understand how facilitators’ intersectional identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, agency type, and years of experience) shaped their sense of belonging and engagement in STEAM contexts. Aligning with Evaluation 2025’s pillars, my project reflects transformative evaluation by and advocating for tools and processes that honor diverse perspectives. I also practiced engaging communities through collaborating with interest holders (e.g. program leads) to co-develop evaluation questions and focus group protocols grounded in Culturally Responsive Professional Development (CRPD). I modeled sharing leadership by distributing decision-making power in tool development (focus group protocols), prioritizing participant voice, and ensuring findings inform subsequent phases of CPE. Ultimately, my contributions offered practical insights for integrating CRE into WestEd’s evaluation processes and let me practice several of the AEA competencies as an emerging evaluator.
Stories From The Field: How Community Engagement Alliance Is Transforming Academic Research And Communities’ Health In The U.S. And U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands, Yakubu Wule Sini , Alison Mendoza-Walters
Community engagement and alliances are crucial for promoting sustainable health interventions and improving health outcomes. The success of health interventions has been increasingly linked to community involvement in planning, implementation, and evaluation. Community engagement is the process of involving individuals, groups, and stakeholders from diverse sectors to improve public health (Green & Mercer, 2001). It provides underserved populations a platform to voice health concerns, helping tailor interventions to their needs (Wallerstein & Duran, 2006). Involving the community ensures health programs align with local norms and values, improving program reach and effectiveness (Israel et al., 1998). The National Institutes of Health funded Community Engagement Technical Assistance Center (CETAC) (Agreement OT2HL158287) is collaborating with researchers to implement community-engaged research to improve health and reduce disparities in U.S. communities. The evaluation is adapted from the National Academy of Medicine’s Assessing Community Engagement (ACE) model, which focuses on four key domains: Strengthened Partnerships, Expanded Knowledge, Improved Health Programs and Policies, and Thriving Communities. It emphasizes meaningful community engagement, fostering partnerships, exchanging knowledge, and tailoring health programs to community needs. This paper shares lessons from success stories that highlight how community engagement strategies are improving academic research and health interventions to address community needs. These stories were gathered by researchers working with community organizations across the U.S. and U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. CETAC receives monthly reports from research teams that include success stories. Deductive coding was used to analyze the stories adapted from the four domains of the ACE model to identify common themes. Research teams reported success stories in the areas of improved readiness, collaboration, and trust among community-based organizations, community members and researchers, enabling them to work together to address community challenges. Additionally, there was an increased capacity within community-based organizations and community members, evident in their ability to apply for and secure grant funding to tackle community issues independently. Community partners presented papers at conferences across the United States in collaboration with academic researchers as an outcome of this program.
