Growing and Thriving: a University-Based Evaluation Team's Journey of Growth, Empowerment, and Amplification of New Evaluators

The Illinois Asthma Program evaluation team was formed in 2019 by two faculty members and one MPH candidate at Northern Illinois University. Throughout its first five years, 23 individuals have played active roles on the team. In its current state, the team is housed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has evolved to include 10 members, new and seasoned, who represent a broad spectrum of ideas, expertise, and lived experiences. With a person-first approach rooted in the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, skills, and interests of those members, the team aims to support symbiotic relationships in which emerging evaluators are encouraged to contribute new and creative ideas, while also empowering them to grow and branch out into evaluation and other fields of interest. Notably, 18 of the 23 members who have had roles on the team during the last five years have been students who are new to the field of evaluation, many of whom have played active roles in developing and implementing evaluation plans and disseminating findings to external partners and funders.
 
The team’s rapid growth has brought to light the benefits of a reflexive work environment characterized by continuous evolution and improvement. As a result, the team elected to restructure in its fourth year, anchoring itself in its person-first approach underscoring that everyone is an expert in their own needs. Notably, the growth process has revealed how foundational evaluation concepts can be applied in their personal lives. For example, how the embodiment of a person-centered approach that is mindful of values, cultures, and integrity leads to better day-to-day outcomes.
 
During the panel, panelists’ experiences will demonstrate that amplifying, empowering, and prioritizing diverse perspectives in evaluation contributes to the drive for a stronger future. Team members will use a visual metaphor (i.e., a tree from roots to blossoms) to tell the story of how their university-based public health evaluation team is growing and thriving as they apply the foundations of evaluation to their team culture and personal lives. The team members will walk the audience through the symbiotic relationship between its individual members' growth and the team's growth, with guiding principles of constant learning and growth. The discussion will include how their respective journeys have been included in the team’s work through inclusion, empowerment, and belonging via active participation. The team will also share best practices and lessons learned from working with new and emerging evaluators. External factors will also be discussed.
 
In all, the audience will learn that University-based evaluation teams possess and contribute unique opportunities that should be leveraged to empower evaluators of all backgrounds to make an impact in a variety of disciplines.