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Evaluation Managers and Supervisors

How Evaluation Commissioners shape, tell and receive the “evaluation story?”

Friday, October 13, 2023
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
Location: Room 102

Location: Room 102

Abstract Information: Evaluation commissioners are the unsung heroes of evaluation. In fact, their contributions very much influence the evaluation story. Inspired by the occasion of the upcoming book entitled, “Evaluation Management: Commissioning and Conducting Evaluations That Matter,” this panel will highlight the role evaluation commissioners play in shaping evaluation before evaluators are hired, during the evaluation and after. The panelists are experienced commissioners who bring perspectives in foundations, federal government and international agencies. They will share stories about their role in shaping the evaluation early on, the journey the evaluation takes prior to it being commissioned, the role of the commissioner during and after its completion in defining how the evaluation is seen and remembered as an experience, and the story it tells the organization and its stakeholders. The facilitator will interview these experienced evaluation leaders to give the audience a glimpse of the complex and important role evaluation commissioners play in managing evaluations that matter.

Relevance Statement: Since the 2018 adoption of the AEA competencies, evaluation management was recognized as one of the key domains. When we think of management, we think of the management job “really” starting when the evaluation is awarded and evaluators engage in start up and planning. In the upcoming book “Evaluation Management: Commissioning and Conducting Evaluations That Count” (Sage 2024), Tessie Catsambas and Jane Davidson discuss evaluation management as a shared responsibility that begins before the evaluation contract commences and ends well after the evaluation report is submitted. This is the first book on evaluation management, and certainly the first book to present systematically the role and process of evaluation management across a range of evaluation commissioning organizations. Typically, evaluation managers on the commissioning organization are seen as “external” to the evaluation. The authors widen our lens and provide a comprehensive analysis of the role evaluation commissioners play both in the actual evaluations undertaken by the commissioner, and in building internal evaluation capacity for the commissioner to manage evaluations. Panelists will respond to a series of questions that uncover the way in which commissioner evaluation managers shape evaluation in very different commissioning organizations: foundations and federal government, US-focused and international. All panelists are directors of evaluation in different large organizations: the Kellogg Foundation, the CDC and UNFPA. The experience of commissioners of evaluation has largely been ignored in the literature. At AEA presentations, they frequently give a small view of the context while evaluators have the center stage. This panel will illuminate the "black box" of commissioning evaluation--it will uncover the hidden part of the story. Evaluators will benefit from deepening their understanding of their clients' context, evaluation commissioners will gain new insights from this comparative presentation of "the commissioners' story," and evaluation instructors will focus on the skills that evaluation commissioners really need from evaluation capacity building.

Presentations:

  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Commissioning evaluation in a federal agency

    Presenter: Daniel Kidder, PhD (he/him/his) – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Commissioning evaluation in the foundation context

    Presenter: Huilan Krenn, Ph.D. – W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION

  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Commissioning evaluations in United Nations' agencies

    Presenter: Marco Segone, MA – United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Evaluation manager's role in commissioning evaluations that matter
  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Good practices and cautions for evaluation commissioners

    Presenter: E. Jane Davidson, Ph.D. – Real Evaluation

  • 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM ET
    Implications for evaluation capacity building for evaluation commissioners

    Presenter: Veronica Olazabal, MA (she/her/hers) – The BHP Foundation

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