Evaluation 2025 Workshops

AEA is excited to present dozens of pre-conference workshops at Evaluation 2025: Engaging Community, Sharing Leadership. Register here to secure your spot; these workshops are an additional cost.

Seats are limited for these workshops. All times listed below are in Central Time (CT).

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Monday, November 10

Two-Day Workshop

Workshop 1141: DEVELOPMENTAL EVALUATION: Community-based, Shared Leadership Principles of Engagement (Day 1 of 2)

Speaker: Michael Patton

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

This is a two-day workshop spanning November 10-11.

Developmental Evaluation guides adaptive action, innovative initiatives, and systems change in complex dynamic environments. The essentials of this approach will be presented, examined, and applied. Participants will learn to distinguish Developmental Evaluation from other evaluation approaches with special attention to community engaged, shared leadership applications based on utilization-focused and co-creation principles. .The course will include special attention to the relevance and implications of evaluation adaptability and agility in times of uncertainty and turbulence, as in the global pandemic, the accelerating climate emergency, and resilience in the face of policies that oppose equity and sustainability. The course will cover the niche, nature, and principles of developmental evaluation; purposes and applications at local and international levels; the particular challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of this approach; essential principles and practices for designing and conducting developmental evaluations; case examples; and use of the new ADAPT framework.

Tuesday, November 11

Two-Day Workshop

Workshop 1141: DEVELOPMENTAL EVALUATION: Community-based, Shared Leadership Principles of Engagement (Day 2 of 2)

Speaker: Michael Patton

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Please see the description above in day 1. This is a two-day workshop spanning November 10-11.

One-Day Workshops

Workshop 1063: Project Management for Evaluators: Enhancing Community Engagement and Leadership in Evaluation Projects

Speaker: Marcel Chiranov

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Evaluators frequently work within the constraints of time, budget, and stakeholder expectations, yet many lack formal training in project management—a discipline designed to optimize resources, mitigate risks, and ensure successful project outcomes. Evaluations themselves are complex projects that require careful planning, execution, and adaptive management. This workshop demonstrates how integrating project management principles into evaluation practice enhances efficiency, stakeholder engagement, and the overall impact of evaluation findings. This session is particularly valuable for M&E specialists, evaluation consultants, and program managers looking to enhance their ability to deliver high-quality, high-impact evaluations. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with concrete strategies to plan, execute, and manage evaluations more effectively, ensuring better outcomes for the organizations and communities.

Workshop 1075: Dabbling in the Data: Hands-On Data Analysis Activities for Teams

Speaker: Corey Newhouse

Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

As evaluators, we are at our best when interest holders use our findings to get better at what they do; meaning making with data is a powerful way to achieve this goal. However, data analysis can seem like a daunting task for many in mission-driven organizations, requiring specialized knowledge and years of training. It can be challenging for evaluators to engage teams in this situation, limiting their ability to meaningfully engage with interest holders. Public Profit wrote Dabbling in the Data: A Hands-On Guide to Participatory Data Analysis to give evaluators, and the folks they work with, a jumpstart in interpreting data collaboratively.

In this professional development workshop, participants will get substantial hands-on experience with Dabbling activities, ranging from simple "get to know your data" activities to more complex methods. We'll discuss the ways in which participatory data analysis promotes more rigorous evaluation practice by engaging interest holders in meaning making. Finally, we'll explore the scenarios in which participatory data analysis makes the most sense, and share facilitation tips for different settings. Participants will start their own Dabbling action plan during this workshop.

Session participants will receive a complementary copy of the Dabbling guide, along with detailed planning worksheets.

Workshop 1065: Transformative Mixed Methods Evaluation: Commitment to Equity, Community Engagement, and Shared Leadership

Speaker: Donna Mertens

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 

AEA has made a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. This workshop combines the need to act upon that commitment through an exploration of the transformative framework that can be used to design strategies to address inequities in the world by the way they design their evaluations. Transformative mixed methods designs are explicitly constructed to serve this purpose. The transformative epistemological assumption directly focuses on challenging exiting power structures and engaging with communities in ways that are culturally responsive. This workshop is designed to teach the use mixed methods for transformative purposes to better address the needs of members of marginalized communities, such as women, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, racial/ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and religious minorities. Participants will learn how to use a transformative lens to identify those aspects of culture and societal structures that support continued oppression and how to apply mixed methods designs to contribute to social transformation. Interactive learning strategies will be used including whole group discussion and working in small groups to apply the design of a transformative mixed methods evaluation to a case study.
My decision to propose a full day workshop on this topic is based on feedback from previous presentations at AEA and elsewhere in which participations indicated that they needed more time to apply the concepts of the transformative paradigm. (I previously presented this as a half day workshop). Given the political climate, the workshop will provide evaluators with a space to consider consequences of the changes in policy that have brought issues of racism, sexism, ableism, and homophobia into the spotlight. There are other opportunities for evaluators to learn about generic mixed methods approaches but my passion and expertise is in transformative mixed methods. Mixed methods design has become more sophisticated and has developed far beyond the idea of combining focus groups with surveys. The transformative approach to mixed methods is recognized as one of the major frameworks for conducting mixed methods studies. It is the only framework that starts with the ethical assumption that our evaluation work needs to explicitly address the issues of discrimination and oppression and that we can provide a basis for transformative actions that increase justice in the world.

Workshop 1137: Consulting 101: An introductory workshop for evaluators who want to start consulting practices

Speaker: Matthew Feldmann

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Independent consulting. Side hustle. Entrepreneur. Small business owner. Evalpreneur. If these terms resonate with you and your goals, then this workshop is for you. More than 20% of AEA members are independent or have independent consulting side jobs. This workshop will provide you with key understandings to initiate an independent consulting practice including niche identification, marketing approaches, organizational structures, and finances. Laura Keene and Matt Feldmann both have thriving consulting practices and will share their insights for how you can develop your practice through valuable samples, worksheets, and insider tips. If you need some help getting started with consulting, this is the place for you.

Wednesday, November 12

Half-Day Workshops