Mrs. Cath Scarth

Catherine Scarth’s career has focussed on the design and implementation of innovative social programs and enterprises in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has achieved this through the creation of partnerships with government, employers and the community sector to deliver programs designed to increase the economic and social participation for newly arrived migrants and refugees.

Ms Scarth is the Chief Executive Officer of AMES Australia, an organisation providing a wide range of interconnected settlement, education, vocational training and employment services in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Ms Scarth is a member of the Settlement Services Advisory Council (SSAC) and a Board member of the Migration Council of Australia.

Ms. Eva Sarr

Eva Sarr is an indigenous Serer woman from Sene-Gambia, in West Africa. She is also a 6th generation Australian woman of indigenous Celtic–Scottish and Irish–descent. Her father was Muslim and her mother, Catholic. She was raised in Global South nations in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific by her mother, who worked as a Peace Corps Medical Officer. 

Eva is a mixed methods evaluator with 15 years of experience. She has worked internationally, with Indigenous Australians and with Australia’s State and Federal governments and the Not-for-Profit sector in Australia, as an external evaluator, senior internal evaluator and project manager across the health, education, employment, arts, and community development sectors.
 
Eva is the founding chair of the Australian Evaluation Society’s first Multicultural Special Interest Group and an affiliate of the Center for Culturally Responsive Assessment and Evaluation.She is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Multicultural Program Evaluation (CMPE).

Mr. Frank Piccolo

Frank Piccolo’s accounting and tax career has spanned over 20 years. He began his career with the ATO in Advising and Investigations before moving to a chartered firm where he stayed for seven years. In 1995, Frank started his own business, Frank Piccolo & Co. In 2012, he purchased Steve Dossis and Associates which has now grown into a successful boutique firm; PKD Partners Pty Ltd. Frank’s expertise extends to business reorganisations, tax planning and family business. His greatest achievements have been providing young accountants with a platform to launch their own successful careers, developing long term relationships with his clients to help them reach their financial and business goals. Frank holds a Bachelor of Business in Accounting from RMIT and is CPA qualified.

Dr. David Fetterman

David M. Fetterman, president and CEO of Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation consulting firm. He has worked in over 16 countries, working in townships in South Africa and Native American reservations, as well as in high tech firms in Silicon Valley, including Google and Hewlett-Packard. He has 25 years of experience at Stanford University, serving as a School of Education faculty member, School of Medicine director of evaluation, and senior member of Stanford administration.

Fetterman concurrently serves as a faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Previously, Dr. Fetterman was a professor and research director at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Principal Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research, and a senior associate at RMC Research Corporation.

Fetterman is a past president of the American Anthropological Association’s Council on Anthropology and Education and a past president of the American Evaluation Association. He is the recipient of the American Anthropological Association’s President’s Prize for excellence and innovation in applying anthropological insights to the evaluation and improvement of education, social, and health services. Fetterman was also recognized as the Top Anthropologist of the Year for 2019 and of the decade in 2020. He is the recipient of the Paul Lazarsfeld Award for Outstanding Contributions to Evaluation Theory and the Myrdal Award for Cumulative Contributions to Evaluation Practice. Fetterman received the American Educational Research Association Research on Evaluation Distinguished Scholar Award and the Mensa Award for Research Excellence. Fetterman is the founder of empowerment evaluation (a community selfassessment approach). He has published 17 books, including Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment Evaluation: Stakeholder Involvement Approaches and Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages: Hewlett- Packard’s $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice (Stanford University Press).

Dr. Lewe Atkinson

Kylie brings nearly three decades of experience in social and market research and program evaluation.  Over her career she has designed and managed many complex data collection projects with expertise in longitudinal studies and vulnerable populations including 
children, migrants, veterans, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

Before joining the Social Research Centre in 2021, Kylie was at Ipsos, where she was the ambassador for Australia and New Zealand in the Ipsos Global Science Organisation, working with a scientific community focused on data science, neuroscience and behavioural science. 

In 2020 Kylie completed the micro credential for Behaviour Change at Monash University Behaviour Works. She has a passion and skill in using behavioural science to change behaviour in policy, programs and social marketing campaigns. Prior to Ipsos, she was Managing Director of Social Policy and Evaluation Research at Colmar Brunton and held management roles at both I-view and AC Nielsen.  

Kylie has a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Queensland, a Diploma of Marketing Research from Charles Sturt University, and a Bachelor of Business from the University of Southern Queensland. Her thesis topic was data quality in online surveys including four essays on improving respondent participation and response effort.

Mr. Andrew Hawkins

Andrew is a specialist in strategic monitoring and evaluation, program logic and evaluation methodology. Andrew’s strength lies in delivering credible and useful evidence for decision-making. This springs from his commitment to understanding the needs of his clients, and the nature of evidence in complex systems, including the appropriate use of experimental, quasi-experimental, realist and other methods for testing program theory.

Andrew believes that evaluation is a constant process of seeking evidence to support decision making that is relevant to program design and its implementation as well as the monitoring and measurement of outcomes. He draws on a 20 year background in public administration, psychology, statistics, administrative law and applied behaviour change theory. He uses a realist lens and empirical analysis to evaluate the adequacy of program design, monitor performance and conduct comprehensive evaluations to help clients understand how interventions work, and how they may be improved to achieve strategic objectives.

He has provided advice to agencies across the public and not-for-profit policy spectrum on contemporary methods for conducting evaluation—including in 2015 when he co-authored Choosing appropriate designs and methods for impact evaluation with Professor Patricia Rogers RMIT for the Office of the Chief Economist, Department of Industry and Science. He is currently providing advice to the Australian Department of Social Service on their ‘Evaluation Readiness’ Service. He is also working with other Australian Departments, including Prime Minister and Cabinet, Employment, Infrastructure, Immigration and Border Protection, Industry, Innovation and Science. He also works for NSW Government agencies and NGOs, both small and large on social policy and the intersection between government and industry.

Andrew was Chair of the AES Realist Evaluation Special Interest Group from 2014-2018 and is an honorary fellow with Charles Darwin University’s Northern Institute where he regularly collaborates with international realist expert Professor Gill Westhorp. He published Realist evaluation and randomised controlled trials for testing program theory in complex social systems and was a contributor to RAMESES II reporting standards for realist evaluations. In 2014, he led the team that won the Australasian Evaluation Society’s (AES) award for Best Public Sector Evaluation.

Qualifications: Masters of Administrative Law and Public Policy (2007, University of Sydney); Bachelor of Arts, Psychology (Hons) (2000, University of Sydney)

See http://artd.com.au for more details including a CV.

Dr. Brad Astbury

Brad has deep expertise in leading multidisciplinary teams, engaging stakeholders and combining multiple forms of evidence to improve both the quality and utility of evaluation. He has managed and conducted organisational reviews, needs assessments, process and impact studies and theory-driven evaluations across a wide range of policy areas for industry, government, community and not-for-profit clients.

Brad has over 18 years of experience in evaluation and applied social research. Prior to joining ARTD, Brad worked for over a decade at the University of Melbourne, where he taught and mentored postgraduate evaluation students studying for the Masters of Evaluation. Brad was instrumental in developing this course, which is the only one of its kind in Australasia. He maintains an honorary fellow position at the University. From 2013 to 2016 he was appointed as a part-time Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University, School of Population Health to consult on a large ARC linkage grant examining co-design approaches to optimise health literacy.

Brad is an excellent communicator who is able to explain and translate complex ideas for diverse audiences. He has extensive experience conducting and facilitating workshops, seminars and professional development activities – training staff in evaluation approaches and data collection techniques. Many of these engagements have involved longer term work to develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks, build internal evaluation capacity, and prepare in-house research and evaluation toolkits.

Brad has published widely in top-ranked evaluation journals such as the American Journal of Evaluation, Evaluation and Advances in Evaluation book series. He is a recognised international leader in the development of innovative approaches to advance evaluation theory, methodology and practice.

He is a current member of the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA)
Qualifications: Master of Assessment and Evaluation, (2011, University of Melbourne); Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice), (2000, RMIT University).

See http://www.artd.com.au for more details including a CV.

Mr. Eldar Salkovic

Eldar Salkovic is a Director, and highly sought after strategist and business an  with strong problem solving, interpersonal and stakeholder management capabilities. Innovative and firmly grounded in evidence based decision making. Eldar has extensive experience working across the Federal and Victorian Public Service in roles ranging from strategising, policy development, policy implementation, benefits management and evaluation and business case development. He has specialist expertise in the Investment Management standard methodology, particularly in the delivery of problem, benefits, strategic response and solution definition workshops and he is a Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance appointed Investment Management Facilitator Accreditor.

Dr. Sara Maher

Dr. Sara Maher is a specialist in post-settlement issues for African migrant women of a refugee background. Her work has looked at the impact of pre-migration gendered oppression on the post-settlement experience of South Sudanese Australian women, the criminalisation of South Sudansese Australian youth and the ways this type of stigmatising changes how South Sudanese mothers parent in Australia and post-settlement support of mental health and well-being for women – including suicide prevention.  

Sara’s work is trauma-informed and grounded in frameworks of feminism, intersectionality and gendered, structural and systemic oppression. 
Sara is a Churchill Fellow, author and oral historian and her work is grounded in a previous career in child protection, family violence and refugee settlement.

Mr. Ismaela Abubakar

Ismaela ABUBAKAR is an Information system Developer having worked with Medical Research Council Unit, the Gambia as a senior data manager for 17 years and now with Liverpool School of tropical medicine, Liverpool, UK. Ismaela is expert in the following software systems: REDCap, OpenClinical, MS Access and VBA, STATA, SPSS, ODK and High chart. Ismalea designs and develops database across multiple devices, performs data analysis, creates Dashboard and reports.

Mr. Bob Williams

Bob Williams is known internationally as working in various fields, including systems, evaluation and action research.

Bob has been using systems concepts in his work for over forty years. He was originally trained as an ecologist, one of the earliest systems disciplines, and spent four years with the Systems Group at the Open University in the United Kingdom. Bob is well versed in a variety of different systems methods, although in recent years has focused on those more relevant to evaluation, such as soft and critical systems, viable systems and cultural-historical activity systems.

Although he is now based in Argentina, he has conducted organisational development and evaluation projects as well as many systems and evaluation workshops in Aotearoa, Australia, North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

In 2015, Bob was presented with the American Evaluation Association’s Lazarsfeld Award for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation – especially the introduction of systems ideas into evaluation practice

Prof. Veronica Thomas

Veronica G. Thomas, PhD, is a r and Pro tment of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies at Howard University. She also serves as the Evaluation and Continuous Improvement (ECI) Director for the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical Translational Sciences (GHUCCTS). Her research interests include culturally responsive evaluation, physical and psychological well-being of Black families, with particular emphasis on women and girls, and the academic and professional development of students of color. Over the years, Dr. Thomas has published work in numerous refereed journals including the American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, Journal of Community Genetics, Journal of Black Psychology, International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling (British spelling), Family Relations, Adolescence, Educational Leadership, Journal of Adult Development, Review of Research in Education, Journal of Negro Education, Sex Roles, Journal of Social Psychology, Women and Health, and the Journal of the National Medical Association. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, and the Women’s College Coalition. Dr. Thomas major professional associations include the American Evaluation Association (AEA), American Psychological Association (APA), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). In 2019, she received the AEA Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation Scholarly Leader Award for scholarship that has contributed to social justice-oriented, equity-focused, and/or culturally responsive literature. 

Prof. Donna Mertens

Donna M. Mertens, PhD, is a senior partner with over 50 years of experie . Mertens is Professor Emeritus at Gallaudet University with a specialization in research and evaluation methodologies designed to support social transformation. Her work directly addresses systemic discrimination on the basis of multiple characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, disability and deafness. She has authored, co-authored, or edited many books related to evaluation methods and human rights, most recently:

• Mixed Methods Research;
• Program Evaluation Theory and Practice 2nd ed;
• Mixed Methods Design in Evaluation;
• Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods 5th ed.;
• Indigenous Pathways into Social Research, and
• Transformative Research and Evaluation

 She focuses on the intersection of research and evaluation with social, economic and environmental justice and human rights within the philosophical assumptions of the transformative paradigm. Mertens served as the editor for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research 2010–2014. She was President of the American Evaluation Association in 1998 and served on the Board from 1997 to 2002; she was a founding board member of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation and the Mixed Methods International Research Association.

 Donna has been invited to present workshops on the topic of mixed methods in evaluation on all the continents in the world except Antarctica. In addition, she has presented at evaluation association meetings, including teaching ‘Evaluation 101’ at American Evaluation Association from 2012 to 2017.

 She has delivered workshops on mixed methods designs for many other organizations – some of which include the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, University of South Africa, World Bank, EvalPartners, University of Cincinnati, University of Minnesota, Cambridge University (UK), Mixed Methods International Research Association, the Centers for Disease Control, Universidad de Valle in Guatemala, and University of Santiago in Chile. She was a visiting professor at Flinders University in Adelaide Australia as well as in Denpassar, West Java, Indonesia, during which time, she taught mixed methods design at Flinders.

Asst. Prof. Gregory Phillips

Assistant Professor Gregory Phillips II, PhD, MS (he/him/his) is a Manager. Dr. Phillips is Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the founder of the Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance (EDIT) Program within the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH), which aims to eliminate health disparities among marginalized populations, especially sexual, gender, and racial minority groups, using evaluation, capacity building, and community engaged research. He currently runs the Evaluation Center within EDIT which provides evaluation and quality management services to over 50 community agencies via the Chicago Department of Public Health’s HIV services portfolio, grounded in his homegrown Systems-Informed Empowerment Evaluation approach. Dr. Phillips is currently an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Evaluation, and is the first Affiliate Researcher with the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) to focus on LGBTQ populations. In addition, he currently serves as the Co-Chair of the American Evaluation Association’s LGBT Topical Interest Group. Throughout his career, Dr. Phillips’ work has always centered the LGBTQ+ community, and he has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and delivered over 100 presentations and professional development workshops at scholarly conferences internationally focused on LGBTQ+ community engagement and health.

Mr. David Roberts

David Roberts (MAsEval, BA.(Hons), QPR) is a self-employed consultant with over 35 years experience in evaluations. His evaluation experience encompasses a wide range of approaches and methods across diverse fields (e.g. health, education, counter-terrorism, project evaluations and organizational systems). In 2016, David was awarded the Ros Hurworth Prize for Best Conference Paper at the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) Conference in Perth, Australia.

He is highly regarded in the evaluation profession and has held evaluation leadership positions in Australia and internationally. He is currently a Board member of the International Organization for Collaborative Outcome Management (IOCOM) and is on two AES committees.

From 2012 to 2014, David was President of the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES), a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) and a member of the Management Group of EvalPartners, an international collaboration of United Nations agencies, governments and evaluation societies. Other positions include Chair of the AES Awards Committee, Chair of the ACT Health Advisory Committee and Steering Committee, Hospital in the Home Evaluation, Canberra Hospital (1997-98)
David has training in Anthropology, Evaluation and Community Development. He has a Masters of Assessment and Evaluation. His thesis examined how cognitive structures inform and drive participant responses to elicitation (or projective) techniques. David has conducted workshops for over 30 years in areas such as Community Engagement, Participatory Research, Evaluation Design, Elicitation Techniques, Qualitative Methods and Program TheoryMAsEval, BA.(Hons), QPR) .

Dr. Maria Pallota Chiarolli

Ms. Jiembra Shields

Prof. Felicity Allen

Associate Professor Felicity Allen is a quantitative research specialist with expertise in multivariate and univariate statistical techniques; statistical methods for social research; and data collection and evaluation methods for program evaluation. She wrote Health Psychology and Behaviour in Australia (2010). She was a senior academic at Monash University and is currently Director of RADAC PL. She has worked with a range of clients including government, and semi-government departments, the Department of Justice, the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Community Renewal Project Evaluation, and the Mildura East Aboriginal Community Profile Partnership. As a registered psychologist, she brings a strong emphasis on understanding the drivers of behaviour and the influence of different communities on the actions of individuals and their sense of identity. Particularly at Lake Tyers, the intervention to up-skill and empower the community was successful.

Gilsa Narisse Natividad

Gilsa Narisse Natividad is a Filipina born in Manila, Philippines.

Gilsa, began her career as a Web Developer in 2011 as part of a marketing department, a position she held for over three years. She eventually joined another company in the Philippines, as a Marketing/Multimedia Specialist. After which, Gilsa worked as a remote employee for multiple Australian clients, undertaking web design and content marketing projects. Since then, she has gained 11 years of experience in digital marketing. In those years, Gilsa honed her skills and expertise in graphic design, event planning, social media, branding, web design and development, e-commerce, and content marketing strategies, which led to her delivering successful results for her clients. 

Gilsa now runs a small business with her partner, BusyBear Web, and Graphic Design Services. They help small-medium enterprises from various industries start or level up their marketing goals. Through the years, she led her team to deliver curated business solutions to clients from all over the world, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia. This small business proudly provides its services to different types of clients and businesses no matter how small or big the project is. The team is very small but it welcomes any race and nationality. The team has a friendly vibe and they can work together from their homes remotely. Currently, the team is comprised of mostly Filipinos but they also have a team member from Pakistan. They have been working with Indians and South Africans. Regardless of the difference in culture, timezone, gender, status, and age this small business offers equal opportunity for everyone which is why they also offer part-time and short-term projects to their team members and contractors, giving convenience to those who can only work at night or during their free time. Gilsa has an in-depth passion and care for the elders as she has grown with her grandparents. She has also a strong advocate for women’s empowerment, which is evident in her accomplishments and is a continuous source of inspiration and motivation for her.  

Joshua Singson

Joshua Singson hails from Angeles City, located in the central part of Luzon, Philippines. He graduated with a degree in BS in Information Technology. As an IT professional, Joshua possesses a broad range of supervisory and technical expertise, including configuration and maintenance of Computer-based Information Systems, as well as expertise in the development of complex system builds, hardware and software testing, network support, technical support and computer repairs.

From 2011-to 2018, Joshua worked for the IT Department of local companies. He moved on to work in  Hongkong and Singapore as an IT Professional in 2019, where he was able to work with multi-national co workers – Malaysians, Singaporeans, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and even Americans . From 2020 onwards, Joshua shifted to freelancing and, along with his partner, they started Busy Bear Web and Graphic Design Services. They offer a wide range of innovative and curated digital marketing solutions for small- to mid-sized businesses welcoming clients from across the globe– the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia. In his current role, he primarily handles Busy Bear’s the IT Department but also helps with the Marketing and Communications. Joshua also believes and promote equality.