Dean Stewart Donaldson leads American Evaluation Association conference in Chicago

Stewart Donaldson, dean of Claremont Graduate University (CGU’s) School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation, will conduct the opening ceremony and give the presidential address at the 2015 American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference in Chicago this week.

More than 3,500 people are expected to attend the conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago Nov. 9-14, and the opening ceremony and presidential strand sessions will be streamed live on the Internet to approximately 1,500 more participants across the globe.

The AEA is an international association of professional evaluators devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, organizations, large-scale change interventions, personnel, policies, and products to improve their effectiveness. The organization has approximately 7,500 members representing all 50 of the United States as well as over 60 other countries. Donaldson was elected president in 2013.

In his remarks, he will invite attendees to learn from each other about the best of evaluation. He will also call on them to imagine what evaluation could become in the future, and encourage them to build a thriving global evaluation community.

CGU has the largest and most highly regarded graduate program in evaluation in the world.

In addition to serving as dean of CGU’s School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation, Donaldson holds appointments as dean of the School of Community & Global Health, professor of psychology and community and global health, and director of the Claremont Evaluation Center.

Dedicating more than 20 years to the development of theories and models of evaluation, Donaldson is also an influential author in the field with 12 books and more than 200 scientific journal articles, chapters, and evaluation reports.

Beyond Claremont Graduate University, Donaldson has reached out to a global audience through teaching, mentorship, practice, and developing leaders in evaluation sciences. He has influenced the careers of students, faculty, and evaluators through talks and workshops in more than 30 cities throughout the U.S., as well as overseas in places such as Africa, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Barbados, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The conference’s opening ceremony will begin at 1:15 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 11.