Seattle Evaluation Association

Member Spotlight

• Affiliation/Employer: King County Department of Community and Human Services

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   Role/Title: Evaluator!

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   Years in evaluation: Entering year 6 in the evaluation-ish field

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   Recent clients or projects: My last big accomplishment before leaving my prior  role was using participatory PhotoVoice methods with students to develop a  framework for identifying inclusive school spaces. It spanned a couple years and  took a lot of dedicated work but uplifted student voice in that way was incredibly meaningful and a good way to wrap up my time at the Kent School District. 

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I’ve been involved with SEA for: 2 years

I got into evaluation because… I love everything about research - theory building, developing measures to answer new questions, analyzing data - but I didn't want to conduct it in an academic setting where I felt disconnected from seeing its impact, especially in how it could disrupt social disparities and inequities for real people in the community. I'm drawn to evaluation because I still get to engage in skills and tasks that I enjoy, while also teaching others about the importance of data in spearheading real world changes. And of course, I love building dashboards!

Most underrated evaluation skill: Perspective-taking. Being able to step outside of your own experience, both lived and learned, comes in really handy in relating to and building trust with all your evaluation partners. I also think it helps me confront biases and assumptions throughout the evaluation process.

Least favorite aspect of evaluation: Data cleaning. It's important but I just want to jump into the analysis!

If I were not an evaluator, I would be: A psychometrician. I love the technicality of thinking about new ways to measure different constructs.