Katrina L. Bledsoe, Ph.D.

Katrina Bledsoe is a senior research manager at Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc (WRMA), and currently serves as project director the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program, a large multi-site national evaluation funded by funded by the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA).Dr. Bledsoe specializes in applied social psychology; community-based and theory-driven program evaluation; cultural contexts; and multicultural health. She received her doctorate in Psychology with a co-concentration in Applied Social and Program Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University in 2003. Her 15 years of experience researching and evaluating community-based education programs, drug and crime prevention efforts for communities of color, and health and mental health issues, add to her knowledge of the factors that are associated with negative and positive health, mental health, and social outcomes for communities of color. In the last twelve years Dr. Bledsoe has project directed, managed, and has received or been a consultant on several grants and contracts ranging from drug and crime prevention to school-based education health to leadership development. She also served as Co-principal Investigator of an evaluation of a family literacy program focusing on communities of color for a $15 million dollar social services agency, in the state of New Jersey. Dr. Bledsoe has taught research methods, applied research seminars, social psychology, and the social psychology of prejudice at The College of New Jersey. In the past, Dr. Bledsoe has been the recipient of several contracts and grants at the university, local, and government levels. She is also the author of articles featured in the American Journal of Evaluation, work in the International Handbook of Urban Education, and the Handbook of Ethics for Research in the Social Sciences, and work forthcoming in the edited book, When Research Studies Go Off the Rails: Solutions and Prevention Strategies. Dr. Bledsoe also has been very involved in the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and was recently elected to a three year term on the AEA Executive Board.

Pauline E. Brooks, Ph.D.

Pauline Brooks is an independent evaluator/researcher with particular interest in cross-cultural issues (bridging cultures) and the elimination of inequities, including racism. Dr. Brooks is former manager of evaluation for a large California-based health foundation, university professor, and independent evaluator for family foundations. She has participated on numerous evaluation teams working with and within African American, Latino and Asian American communities, and internationally in Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Surinam. Her initial evaluation training was at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Evaluation where she later worked as an evaluation project director. Dr. Brooks presents on issues of evaluation, culture, equity and racism at national and international conferences.

Huey T. Chen, Ph.D.

Huey T. Chen is Senior Evaluation Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Previously he was Professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 2002-2005. Dr. Chen has contributed to the advancement of evaluation theory and methodology, especially in areas of program theory, theory-driven evaluation, mixed methods, and validity model and approaches. His 1990 book, Theory-Driven Evaluations, is considered the classic text for understanding program theory and theory-driven evaluation. His 2005 book, Practical Program Evaluation: Assessing and Improving Planning, implementation, and effectiveness, provides a major expansion of the scope and usefulness of theory-driven evaluations. He was the 1993 recipient of the American Evaluation Association Paul Lazarsfeld Award for contributions to evaluation theory. He received the Senior Biomedical Research Award in 1998 and the 2001 Award for Dedication and Scientific Direction in the Development and Implementation of Program Evaluation Research Branch from CDC.

Susan Kistler

Susan Kistler is the owner of Kistler Consulting LLC and the Executive Director of the American Evaluation Association. She has taught statistics, research methods, and evaluation at the university level and is an experienced trainer for local, regional, and national audiences. Her interest in measuring web 2.0 has emerged from the association’s use of new outreach tools and her involvement in a range of online community initiatives. She has built upon her traditional evaluation and qualitative and quantitative analysis background, as well as an ongoing commitment to employing methods that are both useful and feasible, to develop and implement measures for emerging technologies that allow for comparisons over time and across groups.

Michael Quinn Patton, Ph.D.

Michael Quinn Patton is an independent evaluation and organizational development consultant. He is former President of the American Evaluation Association and recipient of both the Alva and Gunner Myrdal Award from the Evaluation Research Society for "outstanding contributions to evaluation use and practice" and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for lifetime contributions to evaluation theory from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology honored him with the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology. He is the author of five evaluation books including a new edition of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (4th ed., 2008) and Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods (3rd edition, 2002). His books are used in over 300 universities. Other evaluation books include Creative Evaluation (1987); Practical Evaluation (1982); and Culture and Evaluation (1985). His latest book published, with two Canadian co-authors, focuses on social innovation drawing on complexity theory and systems thinking: Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed, Random House Canada.

After receiving his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, he spent 18 years on the faculty of the University of Minnesota (1973-1991), including five years as Director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research. He received the University's Morse Amoco Award for outstanding teaching.  He has twice keynoted the American, Canadian, and African Evaluation association annual conferences, as well as those of the European Evaluation Society and Latin American Network. He has presented keynotes and workshops for national evaluation conferences in Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark. Norway, New Zealand, and the Australasian Evaluation Society. He is a regular trainer in Ottawa for the World Bank’s International Program for Development Evaluation Training, for the American Evaluation Association, and for The Evaluators Institute.