We will be holding our second monthly for the NC Evaluators Network on Friday, Nov. 5 from 9:00 to 10:00. As Dwayne mentioned last month, our plan is to have these the first Friday of every month. This month we will spend some more time getting to know each other (breaking into small groups, if we have enough people joining to merit that), and also discussing ideas for these chats. Do people prefer just having a chance to get to know each other and to informally share ideas, or would we like to have some more structured topics of discussion?

Also, we have decided to move the next regular meeting of NCEN from midday on Nov. 5 to the following week (Nov. 12), so as to not have two events on the same day. Dwayne will be sending additional information about the meeting shortly, but we wanted to go ahead and let you know so you can plan accordingly.

Thanks, and look forward to seeing some of you on the 5^th at https://zoom.us/j/92643700166.

The field of evaluation is being challenged to utilize a process that considers who is being evaluated and who is conducting the evaluation. Within this, increasing attention has been paid to how race and culture influence evaluation processes. This represents an important step forward in perspective and priority, yet evaluators often lack concrete mechanisms to ensure feasibility and sustainable integration into their work. This workshop addresses this gap by focusing on frameworks and tools recently developed by MPHI. These enable the deliberate development of an evaluation process that takes race, culture, equity, and community context into consideration.

Date/Time: September 11, 9:15 am – 12:30 pm (EST)
Location: Virtual Gathering, register at https://tinyurl.com/RTPE-PD-2020

Learning Objectives: As a result of this workshop, you will…

• Learn key elements of a framework that can improve the quality of evaluation in diverse settings, using a culturally responsive and racial equity lens.
• Gain experience applying culturally responsive and racial equity lenses to a specific RFP and project design.
• Brainstorm specific next steps to apply in your evaluation practice.

Cost:

In recognition of the difficult economic times for many, we are aiming to keep registration fees particularly low this year.

• RTPE Member – $50
• Non-RTPE Member – $60
• Student – $35

Dr. Mindelyn Anderson is the Founder + Principal of Mirror Group LLC, a consulting firm that leverages partnerships with fellow evaluators, researchers, subject matter experts, and change makers to bring collaborative, participatory, utilization-focused evaluation and capacity-building to communities and learning organizations.

For 19 years, Dr. Anderson has researched social inequality and stratification, race and migration, education and social mobility. She has conducted evaluations with and provided technical assistance and training to community-based, regional, national and international non-profit, for-profit, and educational organizations. Her utilization-focused participatory evaluation practice is informed by Culturally-Responsive and Racial Equity Evaluation and values diversity, equity, and inclusion as integral components of high-quality evaluation.

An alumna of the inaugural cohort of Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) Fellowship at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, her previous higher education appointments include Program Director of the Masters of Science in Measurement and Evaluation at American University, Honors Faculty-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northeastern University, and Marilyn Yarbrough Fellow at Kenyon College. Her scholarship has been supported by sponsors including the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Institutes of Health. Dr. Anderson has also held fellowships at American Institutes for Research and Mathematica Policy Research.

• Where: RTP Frontier, “Classroom” room. (800 Park Offices Dr, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709)
• When: 2/15, 11am-1pm (meeting from about 11-12:15, 12:15pm on for lunch and networking/socializing)
• Focus & process: We will be using a speed consulting process to discuss inclusive approaches to evaluation & stakeholder engagement approaches. This will include a focus on participatory, collaborative, empowerment, and developmental evaluation; we will address what these are, how to determine which is appropriate and feasible, and how they can be utilized effectively. The meeting will start with an overview of all approaches to provide a shared understanding. We will then have one member describes an evaluation they are working on. Through the speed consulting process, groups will address how a specific approach could be applied (or challenges that might be faced) in that context/situation.

RTPE Meeting: Friday, Nov. 16, 11:30am-1:30pm 

Want to improve your report design? Or get outside of your comfort zone and build some kind of new-fangled, social media friendly, engaging, visual, or interactive report? But you don’t have a lot of time or money to make this happen.

Join us for our quarterly meeting as Chris Lysy walks us through a set of creative shortcuts and simple web-based tools you can use to bring improve your reporting without the need to invest a lot more time or money. Expect to learn some new tricks and bring questions along with your everyday creative challenges.

Lunch will be provided and we will have extra time for you to ask questions of and network with Chris and the group.

Chris is a member of RTPE, and an evaluator turned fractional creative officer and cartoonist at freshspectrum.com. You can also find his data design workshop at diydatadesign.com

When: Friday, August 18, 2017 at 11am

Where: The Fusion room at the Frontier, RTP

(800 Park Offices Drive, Durham, NC 27703, http://www.rtp.org/about-us/the-frontier/about-us/)

Meeting Agenda:
11:00am – 11:10am Announcements and Introduction, with lunch provided. This meeting has been designed to provide plenty of time for us to network with and learn alongside one another. Salads, sandwiches and drinks will be provided for lunch so that we can nibble along the way.

11:10am – 12:00pm Chris Lysy!!

12:00pm – ?? Discussion and Networking. For those who can stay for the extra time, we will open the discussion to the group. Have questions or challenges related to data, reporting, and the like? Bring them to ask of your peers! This time may or may not be moderated, depending on the needs and interests of those who are able to stay.

Notices:
RSVP to Nina Sperber (RTPE Secretary) at evaluatorsrtp@gmail.com required for this meeting. We will be providing lunch and so need an accurate head count.

You must respond by August 14.

We hope to see you then!

Next quarterly meeting
• November 17, quarterly meeting

You shared your feedback and we listened! In our most recent meetings and in the annual needs assessment survey, members shared an interest in learning from each other in more interactive ways AND in having more time to network. As the result, we are trying something new for our next RTPE meeting and we hope you can join us.

The Research Triangle Park Evaluators’ (RTPE) next meeting will be held on Friday, February 17, 2017 at The Frontier (800 Park Offices Drive, Durham, NC 27703) beginning at 11 am.

Meeting Agenda:

11:00am – 11:10am Announcements and Introduction, with lunch provided. This meeting has been designed to provide plenty of time for us to network with and learn alongside one another. Salads, sandwiches and drinks will be provided for lunch so that we can nibble along the way.

11:10am – 12:00pm Data Visualization Show & Tell. We have focused our annual professional development meeting on the topic of data visualization for the past two years, but members still want more. We think it is time to learn from each other. If you are like us, you have had some successes with data viz in the past couple of years and there are still things you are figuring out. For this Show & Tell, members will share an example from their work with the group (see more details below)

12:00pm – 1:00pm Data Visualization Discussion and Networking. For those who can stay for the extra time, we will continue our discussion about the trials and tribulations of data visualization. This time may or may not be moderated, depending on the needs and interests of those who are able to stay. This time might be used to learn a new trick from the Show & Tell that you want to learn more about. It would also be an ideal time to ask your colleagues for help and suggestions if you have a challenge that you haven’t been able to figure out.

About the Presentation: Bring one (or more!) artifact(s) from your own practice to share with the group: no preparation necessary. We are particularly interested in examples of data viz that your clients have loved AND examples of things that did not go as well as you thought they would. Please come with your artifact in hand, as well as a quick story about it that you can share with the group as part of an informal discussion. We will get to know each other better and learn from each other’s experiences. If you do not have anything to share, please come anyway to participate in the discussion.

Notices:

RSVP to Nina Sperber (RTPE Secretary) at evaluatorsrtp@gmail.com required for this meeting. We will be providing lunch and so need an accurate head count. You must respond by February 10.

If you haven’t paid dues for 2017, please be prepared to fill out a membership form and provide payment at the meeting.

Meetings:
• May Professional Development (date TBD)
• August 18, quarterly meeting
• November 17, quarterly meeting

We invite you to add your 2016 AEA sessions/session to the list of presentations by RTPE members. This is a good way to learn about and support the work of RTPE members. If you have questions, please contact Nina Sperber at nina.sperber@duke.edu.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GC7AqqA_S4TxoUu_MqyJjE_Duz8JmAm94IaKG1vK7FY/edit?usp=sharing

Meeting Agenda:
11:00am – 11:10am Announcements and Introduction
11:10am – 12:00pm Panel, “Engaging Stakeholders and Promoting Evaluation Use”
12:00pm – 1:00pm Optional networking lunch (snacks and drinks provided; bring your lunch or purchase from the Food Truck Rodeo)

About the Presentation: Come learn from a panel of your peers (and their stakeholders!) during a moderated discussion led by Nina Sperber, RTPE Secretary.

Panelists will be asked to describe methods used to engage stakeholders and promote evaluation use with a focus on methods that have been particularly meaningful and useful to their work over the years.

We have a wide range of evaluation sectors represented on the panel. Together with you, the audience, we hope to span the entire life cycle of evaluation work, from evaluation design through reporting.

About the Presenters:
Christie Drew is Chief of the Program Analysis Branch at NIEHS. She oversees evaluation efforts relating to biomedical research grant programs. She will discuss general strategies used by her branch to involve both internal and external stakeholders in every aspect of the evaluation design, implementation and reporting process.

Jan Riggsbee, is a senior faculty member in Duke’s Program in Education and director of Duke’s TeachHouse, a new living/learning community to support and develop early career K-12 educators. Jessica Sperling oversees evaluation at Duke’s Education and Human Development Incubator/Social Science Research Institute, which includes the evaluation of TeachHouse. Together, Jessica and Jan will discuss the role evaluation has played – and is playing – in shaping the TeachHouse’s development and future direction.

Sally Swanson, Chief Program Officer for SHIFT NC, will discuss how she leveraged the evaluation of an adolescent reproductive health demonstration project to both improve services delivered through the demonstration and to inform the development of the next round of initiatives. Joy Sotolongo, Director of Evaluation for SHIFT NC, will engage in a dialogue with Sally to highlight how she participated in the evaluation in her role as the project director.

The Research Triangle Park Evaluators’ (RTPE) next meeting will be held on Friday, February 19, 2016 at The Frontier (800 Park Offices Drive, Durham, NC 27703) beginning at 11 am.

Meeting Agenda:
11:00am – 11:10am Announcements and Introduction

11:10am – 12:00pm Engaging non-traditional stakeholders in an evaluation of a community-based teen pregnancy prevention program

12:00pm – 1:00pm Optional networking lunch (snacks and drinks provided; bring your lunch or purchase from the Food Truck Rodeo)

About the Presentation: Engaging non-traditional stakeholders in an evaluation of a community-based teen pregnancy prevention program
This presentation will describe contributions from an array of multi-disciplinary partners for an evaluation of the President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative demonstration project in Gaston County, North Carolina. In addition to the usual suspects (health care staff), unusual suspects (advertising professionals, county planners, faith-based stakeholders) and teens themselves conducted evaluation activities. The presentation will describe the role of each contributor, the type of data they bring to the table, and how their multiple perspectives provide a more complete and interesting picture of the project’s experiences with increasing teen access to health services. Examples of data from the multi-disciplinary perspectives will include social marketing web analytics; detailed census tract maps; pre/post survey results; and depiction of teen experiences in their own voices. The presentation also will include examples of how stakeholders used data in their respective roles as project implementers.

About the Presenter: Joy Sotolongo
Joy Sotolongo is Director of Evaluation for SHIFT NC, a statewide non-profit leading North Carolina to improve adolescent and young adult sexual health. She is currently leading the evaluation for three federally funded and one privately funded teen pregnancy prevention initiatives. She has 20 years’ experience evaluating community-based prevention programs for adolescents and children in the fields of health, education, and workforce preparation.