Creating a Culture of Evaluation: Strategies and Lessons Learned From PSO

(PSO Evaluation Initiative Best Practices 1)
This session highlights best practices from the PSO Assessment and Evaluation Initiative. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear lessons learned from the Archway Partnership and the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development’s focus on building a culture of evaluation. Participants will learn from peers in PSO about processes and structures that support evaluation activities and build evaluation capacity. The panelists will discuss lessons learned from efforts to design and implement processes and activities to better understand the impact of their programs and better tell their stories.

Target Audience: PSO faculty and staff interested in using evaluation methods, approaches, and techniques for continuous improvement and to better understand the impact of their programs or actions.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how featured PSO units are aligning processes and structure to instill a culture of evaluation.
• Understand evaluation as a system of continuous improvement.
• Understand common evaluation strategies and best practices in PSO.

Presenters:

Theresa Wright, associate director, Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Theresa leads the PSO Assessment and Evaluation Initiative and directs the Institute of Government’s Survey Research and Evaluation Support division. The Survey Research and Evaluation Support group provides systematic quantitative and qualitative data collection, research, and evaluation services for government and agency programs on an individual, agency, and system-wide scale. Theresa has more than 25 years of experience providing consulting, technical assistance, research, and evaluation services to state agencies, local governments, and the higher education, justice, healthcare, and child and family policy communities.

Sam Perren, operations coordinator and Thomson-McDuffie Archway professional, Archway Partnership

Sam was appointed operations coordinator in the Archway Partnership state office in January 2023. Sam has been with Archway since 2017 and has served as the Archway professional in Pulaski, Colquitt, and McDuffie counties. He heads Archway’s evaluation and grant-writing teams, coordinates the UGA Rural Engagement Workshop for Academic Faculty, and manages Archway’s efforts for Burke, Colquitt and McDuffie counties in addition to a number of liaison roles with UGA schools and colleges.

Nipuna Ambanpola, research & public service manager, J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development

Nipuna Ambanpola is the research & public service manager at the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development and supports impact, research, and evaluation efforts. Before working at the Fanning Institute, Nipuna worked in various roles in tech-for-good, corporate social responsibility, and data ethics. Nipuna is a certified IBM Artificial Intelligence Design Thinking Practitioner and obtained his master’s in public administration and master of science in business analytics from the University of Georgia.