Mark your calendar for the 2021 Online H-PEA Conference

Sept. 20 - Sept. 24, 2021

Registration Coming Soon!

Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future

Keynote: Beverly Parsons

We are living in the Anthropocene - a time in which humanity is exerting its influence on all of the earth's ecosystems. At the same time, humans are more interconnected than at any other time. The significance, impact, and pace of change is unprecedented, leading us to new evolutions in our social and natural world.

Learn how you can contribute to a sustainable, equitable future as a user and/or practitioner of evaluation in both your personal and professional daily actions and lives.

Learn about six principles of living as a "Visionary Evaluative". The principles highlight a commitment to equity and the sustainability of nature as core values. They emphasize an orientation of humility, compassion, and transparency when engaging in a world of living, entangled systems with obvious and hidden intersectionalities. The principles also address engaging in deep praxis—mindful and challenging reflection on what is being learned through the intersection of values, iterative action and inquiry, theory, outcomes, and vision.

Beverly Parsons Biography:

Beverly Parsons is President and Executive Director of InSites, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization. InSites works through inquiry-based evaluation, planning, and research to support learning, growth, and change in formal and informal social systems. InSites pays particular attention to how social systems attend to environmental sustainability, social justice, economic well-being, and community development. Beverly served as president of the American Evaluation Association in 2014. She is a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation (University of Colorado) and a B.S. in Medical Technology (University of Wisconsin). She has certificates in Sustainable Business, Human Systems Dynamics, and Appreciative Inquiry facilitation. While at InSites, Beverly has worked with initiatives in education, health, social services, and environmental fields. She has been a consultant to several foundations, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy. She has served as a consultant to foundations in Brazil and the South African Department of Education; conducted evaluations in China and Japan; and assisted teams in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in program evaluation and redesign of curriculum. She has been the principal investigator for two National Science Foundation grants. She specializes in evaluation designs for multi-site, multi-level, large-scale initiatives and using systems thinking and systems theories in research and evaluation. She has written and presented extensively on these topics. She has a strong background in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Prior to InSites, Beverly was at the Education Commission of the States, a national interstate compact that assists governors, legislators, and state education and business leaders to improve education through leadership and policy. Previously she was at Education Northwest (Portland, OR) as Director of the Assessment and Measurement Program; worked on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; held university adjunct teaching positions; and was a physiological chemistry laboratory instructor (University of Wisconsin medical school). Beverly lives with her husband in Hansville, WA and enjoys hiking and organic gardening.

http://insites.org/staff/beverly-parsons/

Systems-Oriented Evaluation for a Transforming World

Beverly Parsons, 3-hour workshop

Intended outcomes: At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to:

• Understand how and why complex systems arise from intersections of the three basic systems in which we live
• nature's systems
• human systems
• mechanistic systems
• Learn to use a basic template for designing a systems-oriented evaluation that brings simplicity to action and inquiry in the midst of complexity
• build/enhance connections with other participants to support engagement in, and ongoing learning about, evaluation that systemically addresses the critical environmental and cultural issues of today

Intended audience:

The workshop is designed for both evaluators and users of evaluation (e.g., program and initiative leaders, foundation leaders, academics, government employees, policymakers, and other stakeholders).

Participants are encouraged to attend as teams with both evaluators and evaluation users.

Description:

Participants will explore how the basic differences in the systemic design of natural, human, and mechanistic systems create complexity that can either bring about equity and environmental rejuvenation or the opposite. They will learn criteria to determine if their evaluation design for a specific situation is likely to lead to equity and environmental regeneration, be indifferent to it, or promote inequity and environmental degeneration at a systemic level.  The workshop will be a mix of presentation, discussion, and small group work. Participants also will work with a basic template that they can adapt for any evaluation that seeks to affect the systemic nature of a situation.

The exploration will include the following topics:

   a)     Thinking in systems

   b)    Thinking evaluatively

   c)     Cultural and ecological systemic contexts for evaluation

   d)    Types of systems change including systemic adjustments, adaptations, and transformations

   e)     The evolving roles for evaluators in complex situations

Periodically, participants will work in breakout groups to apply the topics to their situations. The breakout groups are intended to build new/stronger connections among participants to support one another in ongoing learning and practice after the workshop. We learn to effectively use a systems orientation over a lifetime rather than in a single workshop.