Evaluators talking methods, theory and how they got here.
EvaluLand puts host Dana Jane Linnell in conversation with people working in and around evaluation, on subjects from survey design to regenerative and advocacy evaluation. She usually starts by asking guests how they got into the field, then follows the talk into methods, theory and the messy parts of real projects.
PRESS PLAY
EvaluLand is an interview podcast about evaluation as a professional field, hosted by Dana Jane Linnell. Her standard opening notes that she records on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe people in Menominee, Wisconsin. Then comes a question she clearly enjoys asking. Before the main topic gets going, she asks guests how they got into evaluation, and she calls the answers their origin stories. Because of that habit, the methods discussion that follows is tied to a real person and a career. The subjects range across the field. Sheila Robinson and Kim Leonard join her to talk about survey design and how to write good survey questions. In that episode they recall a survey-question error that an editor caught in a book, one they had been too close to see, and they make the case that testing surveys with colleagues matters even though it is so often missing from timelines and budgets. Linnell adds a story from her own dissertation: one of her advisors, Leslie Fierro, pushed her to run cognitive interviews and use the Question Appraisal System, and she admits she resisted at the time. Robin Lin Miller comes on to discuss her book about sexual and gender minority-led advocacy to end AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. She describes how ambiguous the evaluation was, how different the countries involved were, among them Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and how small the resources given to small groups often are. The conversation with Jennifer Villalobos turns to social justice, questions the idea that numbers are objective facts, and moves on to what is happening in the federal government. Villalobos also likes the idea of evaluators having a bigger voice beyond their own spaces. In '48: The Garden of Evaluation Approaches', several guests discuss their published and ongoing work on visual maps of evaluation theory. One of them argues that different visualizations should show different things, and that some can help students follow how the field has changed over time. Jannik Kaiser describes regenerative evaluation as a posture and a set of principles, with some frameworks and methods better suited than others to putting it into practice on a project. Kaiser credits the contributors to a living paper on the subject. One episode drops the interview format entirely and has Linnell on her own, reflecting on a course she is teaching. She talks about a flu wave that hurt attendance, splitting the class into two groups, and letting students help choose what they would evaluate. What a listener gets is less a methods course than a sense of how evaluators think and talk about their work, in a warm, collegial register.
Made for: Suits a listener who works in or studies evaluation and wants to hear peers talk through practical craft like survey design alongside approaches such as regenerative and advocacy evaluation.
What sets it apart: EvaluLand doesn't stick to one method. It ranges from testing survey questions to maps of evaluation theory, and it grounds each conversation in how the guest came to the field. It suits a listener who wants to hear from the people behind the approaches, not just about the approaches.
This podcast discusses the landscape of evaluation. Each episode will feature a guest in or around evaluation to discuss something evaluation-related. Email me at [email protected] if you have any feedback or questions about the podcast.
The evaluation report is gathering dust; Dana Linnell-Wanzer would like you to meet its unfinished business.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded introduction to regenerative evaluation, linking flexible principles with adaptable open-source frameworks.
Regenerative evaluation comes through as less a fixed method than a way of approaching evaluation: a posture shaped by Yannick's sociology background and his work across social justice and civil society.
A careful look at evaluating advocacy when legal risk, scarce funding, and uneven conditions shape the work.
EvaluLand uses Robin Miller's Breaking Barriers, Sexual and Gender Minority-Led Advocacy to End AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean to turn evaluation into a question of context.
A thoughtful, modest look at evaluation theory and the value of seeing the field from more than one angle.
Evaluation theory can feel like a thicket of approaches, and EvaluLand gives that thicket a clearer shape through Dana Jane Linnell's conversation with Bianca Montres-Moorhead, Daniela, and Lissa about the Garden of Evaluation Approaches.
A grounded case for treating quantitative data as evidence that needs context, judgment, and care.
EvaluLand's conversation with Jennifer Villalobos reframes confidence in numbers as a question of responsibility. Villalobos, an assistant professor at Claremont Graduate University as well as a practicing evaluator and researcher in DEI and leadership development, makes the…
Dana Jane Linnell turns a disrupted evaluation class into a grounded look at context, choice, and learning by doing.
Dana Jane Linnell returns to EvaluLand solo to think through what it means to teach evaluation when the course itself keeps changing. Flu-related absences made attendance and structure part of the teaching problem, so she brought students into the decision about what they would…
Range trade talk for firearm instructors.
Clinical CE for busy veterinary teams.
Yannick says he stumbled into evaluation at Fairtrade International in Bonn, Germany, where a receptionist handed him an impact report before he knew the MEL unit existed.
Robin Miller's EvaluLand conversation turns her book, "Breaking Barriers, Sexual and Gender Minority-Led Advocacy to End AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean," into a case study in how advocacy gets evaluated across hostile settings.
EvaluLand episode 48, "The Garden of Evaluation Approaches," brings Dana Jane Linnell together with Bianca Montres-Moorhead, Daniela Schroeder, and Alyssa Wilson-Becho to discuss a visual framework for comparing evaluation theory and practice.
EvaluLand episode 47 features host Dana Jane Linnell interviewing Jennifer Villalobos about evaluator education, academic careers, and practice.
Dana Jane Linnell uses EvaluLand episode 46 to reflect on revising a foundations of evaluation course at University of Wisconsin-Stout and reminds listeners that student evaluation case competition registration ends Saturday, March 1st.
EvaluLand host Dana Jane Linnell interviews Kim Leonard and Sheila B.
Brittany Dernberger describes a career spanning sociology, women and gender studies, nonprofits, philanthropy, the Department of Defense, higher education, and CARE.
Allison Prieur describes moving from psychology, social work, and community-sector work into evaluation, including a 2009 Community Foundations of Canada project on outcome measurement and a first formal evaluation role around 2015.
EvaluLand host Dana Jane Linnell interviews Corey Newhouse and Jessica Manta-Meyer of Public Profit about making evaluation learning stick beyond the report.
EvaluLand host Dana Jane Linnell interviews Michael Moses, an Encompass monitoring, evaluation, and learning advisor with more than 12 years of experience, about theory-based approaches to complex systems.
EvaluLand host Dana Jane Linnell interviews social research scientist Tatiana Elisa Bustos about community-based participatory research, or CBPR, in evaluation and community psychology.
EvaluLand episode 38 features Dr.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Carrie Tanasichuk and Harry Daley of the Community Foundation of Greater St.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Bradley Nabours, a perinatal health program evaluator at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, about entering evaluation and finding work.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Dr.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell Wanzer interviews Dr.
Dana Linnell Wanzer interviews Dr.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell Wanzer interviews Jan Noga of Pathfinder Evaluation and Consulting about systemic design thinking in evaluation and program design.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Martha Brown, founder of RJ Consulting and a trauma-informed and restorative justice specialist with Hamaya Consulting.
EvaluLand host Dana Wanzer joins Libby Smith and Tiffany Tovey of Radical Reimagining to reflect on what felt radical about the 2021 American Evaluation Association Virtual Conference.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Jennifer Puma of GlassFrog Solutions about applying more than 15 years of consulting and project-management experience to evaluation projects.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Jennifer Bisgard, founder and director of Kulisa Management Services, about managing evaluation projects from feasibility checks through reporting.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Elizabeth Grimm, founder of Elizabeth Grimm Consulting, LLC, about independent evaluation consulting for nonprofits, state agencies, and foundations.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Nina Sabari, founder of Intention to Impact, about moving from independent evaluation consulting to entrepreneurship.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer discusses her American Journal of Evaluation study on how evaluators and researchers define evaluation and distinguish it from research.
Evaluland host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Dana Reva and Tamara from EvalYouth ECA about evaluation in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus.
EvaluLand’s episode on evaluation in the Middle East and North Africa features Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviewing Hayat Oskar from Jordan and Sana Ibn Salem from Tunisia.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Claudia Alavarilla of Chile and Gerardo Sanchez of Mexico about evaluation across Latin America and the Caribbean.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews European Evaluation Society board members Tom Ling and Otto Potlucka about evaluation across Europe.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Gregory Greenman II about his dissertation on Carol Weiss, whose work shaped evaluation use, knowledge utilization, political context, and theory-driven evaluation.
Helen Salmon, Sage executive editor, explains how evaluation authors move from an initial idea to a reviewed proposal, contract, manuscript, and publication schedule.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Sosin Azatadi, Teddy Theoharis, Zach Tilton, and Safa about Eval Youth's Global Mentoring Program for young and emerging evaluators.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer, Tiffany Smith, and Libby Smith examine how the Interpersonal Effectiveness course in the University of Wisconsin Stout evaluation sequence teaches self-awareness, communication, and reflective practice.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Aisha Rios, founder of Coactive Change, about participatory evaluation and embedding social justice into consulting practice.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer explains how Pandemic Summer, Twitter feedback, student Omar Albarati, and her husband Kurt led her to launch EvaluLand.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews community psychologists Anne Webb Price and Susan Wolf about evaluating coalitions as changing systems rather than single programs.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Asha Joshi and Hana Lantos about their chapter in Measure, Use, Improve, a book edited by Christina Russell and Corey Newhouse on data use in out-of-school-time programs.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer reflects on Eval20, the American Evaluation Association’s virtual conference, describing unexpected networking through chats, private messages, Zoom meetings, trivia, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer reflects on AEA 2020’s virtual conference, which begins on Tuesday after the American Evaluation Association’s recent business meeting.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Shari Smith of Evaluation Into Action about nonprofit evaluation, organizational learning, and music's relationship to evaluation.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews David Kyes about moving from anthropology and evaluation consulting into running R for the Rest of Us.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Anne K.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Anjie Rosga about objectivity, trust in numbers, truth, power, and evaluation practice.
Dana Linnell-Wanzer’s EvaluLand episode 6 surveys evaluation research, beginning with a Research on Evaluation TIG definition centered on purposeful, systematic, empirical inquiry.
EvaluLand’s episode “5: MS in Applied Psychology - Evaluation Reflections” features Emma, Omar, and Jade describing the University of Wisconsin-Stout MS in Applied Psychology program and its two-course evaluation sequence.
EvaluLand host Dana Lynn Alwanza interviews Dr.
EvaluLand host Dana Lynn Alwanza interviews Dr.
EvaluLand host Dana Linowanzer interviews Zach Tilton, a doctoral research associate at Western Michigan University's Interdisciplinary PhD in Evaluation program, about peacebuilding evaluation, research on evaluation, and meta-evaluation.
EvaluLand host Dana Linnell-Wanzer interviews Dr.