The 2025 Plenary sessions will feature in-depth presentations that focus on this year’s theme: Engaging Community, Sharing Leadership.
Wednesday, November 12
Bridging Evaluation and Foresight for Transformative Practice
2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
More details to come!
Moderator: Tom Kelly, Principal, KEL Advising
Panelists:
- Thomas Achibald, Ph.D., Executive Director; Center for International Research, Education, and Development; Virginia Tech
- Genowefa Blunda, Researcher in Impact Evaluation; CIRAD - Alliance Bioversity CIAT
- Jess Dart, Ph.D., CEO; Clear Horizon
- Rick Davies, Ph.D., Evaluation Consultant
- Annette Gardner, Ph.D., Principal, ALGardner Consulting
- Sarah Mason, Ph.D., Director, Center for Research Evaluation; The University of Mississippi
- Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, Ph.D, Director of Online Programs, Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation; University of Connecticut
- Rose Thompson Coon, Senior Lead, Impact & Evaluation, Finnish Innovation Fund; Sitra
- Liz Ruedy, Democracy Fund
Thursday, November 13
The Rise
8:30 - 10:00 a.m.
More details to come!
Panelist:
Friday, November 14
Cultivating Curiosity: Collective Reflection and Leading the Future of Evaluation
3:15 - 4:45 p.m.
As Evaluation 2025 draws to a close, we gather to reflect on what we've learned, where we've grown, and how we will carry the theme of Engaging Communities, Sharing Leadership forward. This is not just a panel—it is a pause, a practice, an honoring, and a provocation.
Drawing on traditions of metaevaluation, liberatory praxis, and oral history, four powerful voices in our field—Libby Smith, Tiffany Tovey, Angelicque Tucker Blackmon, and Ayesha Boyce—will explore how evaluators can co-create meaning with communities, interrogate systems of oppression, and reflect on our own assumptions and practices.
Together, we will turn the mirror inward, exploring critical questions: How do we honor legacy and accountability while moving toward transformative, community-anchored practice? What does it mean to "evaluate ourselves" as a field? Panelists will reflect on their conference experiences and offer insights into how we—as individuals and as a field—might walk differently into the future.
You are invited to show up not just as a practitioner, but as a learner, a listener, a co-creator of what comes next.
Panelists:
- Angelique Tucker Blackmon, Ph.D., CEO; Innovative Learning Center, LLC
- Ayesha Boyce, Ph.D., Associate Director and Associate Professor; Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation; Arizona State University
- Libby Smith, Circle Keeper, Coach, Educator, & Facilitator; Culture of Gathering LLC
- Tiffany Lee Smith Tovey, Ph.D., Director, Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Services; UNC Greensboro