RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints

Michael Bamberger has almost 40 years of experience in development evaluation, including a decade working with NGOs in Latin America, almost 25 years working on evaluation with the World Bank in most of the social and economic sectors and in most regions of the world, and several years as an evaluation consultant. He has published two books on development evaluation, with a third book of case studies on "Useful Evaluations" scheduled for publication in 2004. He has been active for 15 years with the American Evaluation Association, serving on the Board and as chair of the International Committee. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of New Directions for Evaluation, a regular reviewer for several professional evaluation journals and Special Editor for international evaluation for the American Journal of Evaluation. Jim Rugh has had 41 years of professional involvement in rural community development in Africa, Asia, and Appalachia. He has specialized in evaluation for 25 years-the past 10 years as head of Design, Monitoring and Evaluation for CARE International, a large nongovernmental organization (NGO). His particular skills include promoting strategies for enhanced capacity for evaluation throughout this worldwide organization. He is a recognized leader in evaluation among colleagues in the international NGO community, including InterAction. He has been an active member of the American Evaluation Association since 1986, currently serving on the Nominations and Election Committee. He was a founding member of the Atlanta-area Evaluation Association. He has experience in promoting community development and evaluating and facilitating self-evaluation by participants in such programs. He has provided training for and/or evaluated many different international NGOs. He brings a perspective of the ?big picture,? including familiarity with a wide variety of community groups and assistance agencies in many countries, plus an eye to detail and a respect for inclusiveness and the participatory process. Linda Mabry is a faculty member at Washington State University specializing in program evaluation, student assessment, and research and evaluation methodology. She currently serves as president of the Oregon Program Evaluation Network and on the editorial board for Studies in Educational Evaluation. She has served in a variety of leadership positions for the American Evaluation Association, including the Board of Directors, chair of the Task Force on Educational Accountability, and chair of the Theories of Evaluation topical interest group. She has also served n the Board of Trustees for the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessments and on the Performance Assessment Review Board of New York. She has conducted evaluations for the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Jacob Javits Foundation, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Ameritech Corporation, ATT-Comcast Corporation, the New York City Fund for Public Education, the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the Chicago Teachers Academy of Mathematics and Science, and a variety of university, state, and school agencies. She has published in a number of scholarly journals and written several books, including Evaluation and the Postmodern Dilemma (1997) and Portfolios Plus: A Critical Guide to Performance Assessment (1999).