Government Evaluation
Ted Kniker, MA (he/him/his)
Executive Vice President
IMPACT Paradigm Associates
Herndon, Virginia, United States
Natalie Donahue, n/a (she/her/hers)
Chief of Evaluation, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
U.S. Department of State, District of Columbia, United States
Location: White River Ballroom G
Abstract Information: The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs former Chief of Evaluation (1998-2006) and current Chief of Evaluation (2018-Present) share stories of establishing, leading, and maintaining an effective government evaluation unit. They will discuss the changes, cycles, and cultures in government evaluation and evidence they have observed over a quarter of a century, highlight examples of how story influenced, inspired, or ignited evaluations, and identify lessons learned from their experiences and the evolution of evaluation at the Bureau. Their stories will set the roundtable discussion to create additional dialog on how evaluators can use story to advance the field.
Relevance Statement: This session takes to heart the conference theme of story. Two evaluators, who have served in the same position distanced by more than 20 years, will share key stories of how this government office has evolved through changes in expectations, administrations, staffing, budget, and its environment to emerge with an enduring culture of evaluation excellence. The dialog between the presenters and with the roundtable audience will be used to show how evaluators can build relationships, ground evaluation work, describe the context, convey data, impose meaning, share lessons learned, and identify challenges left to address in the field. The session provides a longitudinal view of the enduring approaches of evaluation in the federal government and how evaluators can maintain standards of quality, while both innovating and protecting evaluative practices that ultimately convey the story and value of government programs.