KEYNOTE PRESENTERS:

Katherine Tibbetts, Pālama Lee, Dawn Mahi

With 40 years as an evaluation practitioner and an active AEA member since 1998, Kathy brings a  unique blend of scholarly rigor and practical application to evaluation praxis. She is deeply committed to the use of evaluation to promote social justice and equity and the common good. She values collaboration and the strength that diversity in perspectives and backgrounds brings to sound, just decision-making.

With over 40 years of experience conducting research and evaluation to promote Native Hawaiian wellbeing, she champions culturally responsive, inclusive, and equitable evaluation practices. Her contributions to the development of the "Evaluation with Aloha" framework and the Kūkulu Kumuhana wellbeing framework exemplify her commitment to value-based approaches grounded in Native Hawaiian worldviews.

Within the American Evaluation Association (AEA), she co-founded the Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (TIG) and co-authored the seminal AEA Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation. She served as a member-at-large on the AEA Board from 2022-2024 and is the current AEA President-Elect. As a member of the 2018 AEA Guiding Principles Task Force, she made significant contributions to the strengthening of the statements related to Common Good, Equity, and Respect for People.