VSA Workshop An Introduction to Community-Centered Evaluation

VSA Workshop
An Introduction to Community-Centered Evaluation
March 8th, 3 - 4:30pm ET

Are you working to bridge the gap between institution-centered goals and the needs, interests, and values you are hearing from visitors and community members? Are you trying to find ways to shift power structures and accountability to center community voices and needs? Join us for a 90-minute introduction to some of the principles and practices of community-centered evaluation approaches, from co-developing outcomes and measures of success to designing tools, collecting data, and sharing results in a way that centers the communities you are working with. This interactive workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Shelly Valdez (Native Pathways), Jill Stein (Reimagine Research Group), and Dr. Andrea Girón Mathern (Centrality Research), who collectively bring many decades of experience working to center community voices and needs in evaluation and visitor studies. We hope that participants will come away with:

• New ideas and perspectives to help strengthen community-centered evaluation processes
• Practical examples of community-centered approaches to developing outcomes, measures of success, and logic models, as well as data collection, analysis, and reporting
• Useful tools and resources to support continued learning and growth in these areas

The workshop is designed for evaluators and those using evaluation and visitor studies to guide their work and is aimed at those who are new or relatively new to engaging with community-centered evaluation processes. There will be time to workshop examples from your own work and experience.

Speakers:

• Dr. Shelly Valdez (she/her), Native Pathways
  Dr. Shelly Valdez is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna Tribe, located in central New Mexico, and Hispanic descent. Shelly’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education, Master of Arts in Bilingual Education, and Ph.D. in Multicultural Teacher Education focusing on research in the area of Science Education. Shelly has worked in the area of education for 38+ years and currently owns & manages an educational consulting business, Native Pathways, (NaPs), located in central New Mexico. An important component of NaPs is worldviews in science, primarily focusing on Indigenous science. Shelly’s interest and passion of Indigenous science has influenced her approaches in the field of education and her partnerships.

• Jill Stein (she/her), Reimagine Research Group
  Jill Stein is Principal Researcher of Reimagine Research Group, (Corvallis, OR), and brings more than 15 years of experience in research and evaluation in informal learning contexts. She has worked with a broad range of institutions, including science museums and
  centers, cultural heritage and history museums, tribal museums, historic sites, art museums, and children’s museums. Her areas of interest include evaluation practices that attend to diversity and equity, collaborative partnerships between tribal and non-tribal organizations, and multiple worldviews of science and nature.

• Dr. Andrea Girón Mathern (she/ella), Centrality Research
  Dr. Girón Mathern is Principal and Founder of Centrality Research (Denver, CO). She brings over a dozen years of community research and evaluation experience to her work. She has worked in nonprofits for nearly two decades internationally as well as across the United States of America. Dr. Girón Mathern is a skilled researcher in both quantitative and qualitative methods though she is drawn to collaborative research and evaluation strategies which elevate and center the voices of those who have been historically silenced and marginalized. She holds a PhD in Research & Evaluation Methods as well as a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management. She has led research efforts funded by NASA, IMLS, and NSF. She is a proud wife and partner, mother of twin boys, sister, auntie, and daughter.