Evaluation Café RSVP

Special in-person event.

Guili Zhang, professor and department chair at East Carolina University, and president of the American Evaluation Association, will join us for the 2025-26 Evaluation Café series.

Date: Wednesday, April 8

Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Location: Fetzer Center, Room 1040, Western Michigan University

To attend, please register below.

Dr. Zhang's visit marks 14 consecutive years that the current American Evaluation Association has visited Western Michigan University.

Presentation: Evaluation Across Boundaries

This presentation explores how evaluation can move beyond traditional limits—across national borders, generations, disciplines, and methodological divides. It emphasizes openness to new ideas, diverse perspectives, and collaboration across fields and sectors. By blending evaluation models and techniques—qualitative and quantitative, academic and applied, traditional and emerging—evaluators can respond more effectively to today’s complex challenges. The approach values contributions from both experienced and early-career evaluators, fostering mutual learning and innovation. Crossing boundaries enables evaluators to address global issues, adapt to changing contexts, and expand the reach and relevance of evaluation, maximizing its impact wherever it is needed. 

This year, there is an additional opportunity to engage:

Panel Session: Navigating Professional Pathways and Boundaries in Evaluation

Following Dr. Zhang’s presentation, stay for dessert, coffee, and an engaging conversation with Dr. Zhang and a panel of local evaluation professionals. This facilitated dialogue will explore how evaluation educators, practitioners, researchers, and entrepreneurs navigate the terrain of evaluation as a discipline, profession, and business. Panelists will share personal stories and practical insights about building a career in a field with fuzzy boundaries where professional demands vary widely from one context to another. Join us to explore the opportunities and challenges of building a career in evaluation and to connect with others charting their own professional journeys.