Selected student profiles

Stacey Grimes
M.A. student, evaluation studies
sgrimes@hhh.umn.edu

Stacey is a master's student in evaluation studies and has been taking classes while working as the assistant to the DGS and the associate dean at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. She hopes to complete her M.A. by December 2005. Stacey holds a B.S. in elementary education, also from the University of Minnesota, and was a third and fourth grade teacher in New Mexico. Later, she began work at the Humphrey Institute, where she has been for the last 14 years.

Stacey is very impressed with the education that she has received from the faculty of the Educational Psychology and the Educational Policy and Administration departments. She has found them knowledgeable and very helpful. She also appreciates that the curriculum has exposed her to topics that she might not have studied otherwise, such as ethics, cost analysis, and measurement, along with evaluation itself. She also likes the fact that it is fairly easy to network in the local evaluation community because it is relatively small. Because of that ease, she has had opportunities to meet local practitioners as well as Michael Q. Patton, a major figure in the field.

Stacey sees the field of evaluation as very useful and says she has gained many practical skills that can be applied across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Stacey got a good dose of what evaluation is all about when she did her internship over the summer working on two evaluation projects. One was an evaluation of the Science Museum of Minnesota's new outdoor exhibit, the Big Backyard, which was done in collaboration with two other students, Mary McEathron and Amy Grack, to whom she says she is deeply indebted for everything she learned. The other evaluation, done under Mary McEathron’s supervision, was an evaluation of a two-week summer institute for science teachers, sponsored by the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics. She found the experience very educational as she was able to actually do things she had only read about, such as putting together a budget, writing and analyzing surveys, and interviewing subjects.

Stacey is very excited about finishing her studies and pursuing other opportunities in evaluation. She can be reached by e-mail at sgrimes@hhh.umn.edu and welcomes correspondence.

Lesley Lilligren
Ph.D. student, evaluation studies
lilli004@umn.edu

Lesley has taken to heart the advice of family members and friends who told her, “You owe it to your community to go back and work in it.” She combines full-time work as an administrator with Ph.D. research in evaluation studies. Lesley works for Upward Bound Vision Quest, a program designed to provide middle and high school students with the skills and motivation necessary to graduate from college. These students are low income and/or potentially the first generation in their family to graduate from college. Lesley came to the University of Minnesota after receiving a B.A. in Spanish from Moorhead State University to work with the Upward Bound program (then called Indian Upward Bound). She completed her masters of education in youth development leadership in 1999. Her degree portfolio chronicled her work through the Upward Bound program.

Lesley’s research has centered in three main areas that directly correspond to her work in the community. She has worked to build evaluation capacity with tribal Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative grantees as a consultant for Rainbow Research. She is also most interested in identifying the characteristics present in American Indian youth who have successfully completed high school. Furthermore, she hopes to be able to integrate these issues in a study of the impact of Upward Bound on students in Minnesota.

Lesley finds that, even while working full time, the high participatory focus of the evaluation studies program at the University of Minnesota allows her to feel strongly connected to her cohort. She remarks on how difficult it would be to find more diverse people than those present in her cohort and yet they have grown together to be a highly effective team through the qualitative work they have done together, including the evaluation of the 2001 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) under the guidance of Dr. King.

John Smith
Ph.D. student, evaluation studies
smith144@umn.edu

John is a native of Minnesota and serves as a project coordinator at the Institute on Community Integration, a federally designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities housed at the University of Minnesota. He received his B.S. in therapeutic recreation at Minnesota State, Mankato, followed by a master's in social work here at the University of Minnesota. John is currently working on his Ph.D. dissertation in the EdPA’s evaluation studies program.

John’s research interest is in participant-based evaluations of programs for people with disabilities. His proposed dissertation will investigate the merits and effectiveness of a consumer-driven approach to evaluating quality in community services for persons with developmental disabilities being conducted in the Region 10 area of southeastern Minnesota. John appreciates the many opportunities his graduate program offers to match his professional interests to the concepts being taught through flexible course assignments. As part of his graduate degree program, John was part of a team that evaluated the 2001 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) under the guidance of his adviser Dr. King, along with four other students in his cohort. It is through activities like this that John can put into practice the elements of the theories he encounters in his studies. The fact that John works in a research center on campus provides additional opportunities to quickly bring course information to bear on actual evaluation situations, and to make a difference in research and evaluation activities that have statewide or even national significance.

John finds the diversity of students at the University of Minnesota to be one of its greatest attractions. Classes provide lots of opportunities for individuals to match personal interests with future research and faculty are more concerned with providing opportunities for students to pursue their individual goals than following stringent guidelines.

Boris Volkov
Ph.D. student, evaluation studies
volk0057@umn.edu

Boris Volkov comes to Minnesota with a background in social and educational psychology. He worked as a school psychologist and deputy principal in his native country of Uzbekistan before joining the faculty of Tashkent State University. In 1998 he arrived at the University of Minnesota and completed a master’s degree in comparative and international development in education within the Department of Educational Policy and Administration. His thesis centered on critical issues in distance education for teachers and effective use of educational technology—a research area that he has continued to pursue as a doctoral student in evaluation studies.

Currently, his research interests combine both the evaluation of information technology and science projects as well as the evaluation capacity building in organizations. Boris believes that program evaluation and policy studies issues are ubiquitous and of a great importance these days in the world dimension, particularly in the developing countries where many development projects fail due to the lack of appropriate planning and evaluation. He also assists Professor Jean King with evaluation projects and evaluation capacity development study in such organizations as the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Neighborhood House, and Anoka-Hennepin School District #11. He appreciates having the opportunity to immediately put his studies into practice in the workplace.

What Boris finds most attractive about the evaluation studies program is that it teaches theoretical, analytical and methodological skills (qualitative, quantitative and statistical analysis) that can be applied not only to education, but also to a variety of fields in business and social services. It’s also an academic area that’s relatively unknown in the former Soviet Union, where there has been very little evaluation of programs and projects. Boris knows from personal experience that the evaluation studies program at the U is a very strong one, with excellent teachers. At first the freedom to choose elective courses was a little unusual, but he has come to see it as a wonderful opportunity. He now sees choosing one’s own classes and interest areas as a way to develop thinking skills and creativity.

Shosti Iverson
M.A. student, evaluation studies
iver0216@umn.edu

Shosti is in her second year as a full-time student in the evaluation studies M.A. program. She came directly to the University of Minnesota after her undergraduate study at the University of North Dakota where she received a B.A. in elementary education. Shosti realized that the field that interested her further in education was that of evaluation studies and assessment. After discovering the evaluation studies program on the University of Minnesota Web page, she contacted Dr. David Johnson and Dr. Jean King, who both provided her with encouragement and assistance.

Shosti has completed her coursework within three semesters and has been working as an evaluation intern at the Anoka-Hennepin ISD#11 school district for the past 6 months. This has given her the opportunity to gain experience, develop skills, and prepare for a career in educational evaluation. She is now working on her Plan B paper (thesis) doing an evaluation study of the Anoka-Hennepin School District counseling services. Through various quantitative and qualitative methods, she is investigating ways in which counseling duties can be redistributed to other school staff members in order to provide more availability for students to achieve a more personal relationship with their counselor. She finds that her current research relates directly to her studies as well as further enhancing her primary field of study at the elementary school level.

Shosti was originally concerned about the transition to a graduate-level program given her lack of professional experience. She found instead that the faculty was very supportive and provided direction in completing her program without concern. Furthermore, through Introductory Statistics, Educational Measurement, and other evaluation classes and colloquiums, she was able to prepare herself to pursue her current academic interests and become an active and contributing member of the evaluation and assessment program at the University of Minnesota.

Gayle Walkowiak
Ph.D. student, evaluation studies

Gayle is a Ph.D. student in evaluation studies. She has completed all of her coursework and is working on her dissertation. Gayle holds a B.S. degree in secondary education and an M.A. degree in educational policy and administration, both from the University of Minnesota. She holds a Minnesota teacher license and a Minnesota superintendent’s license.

Gayle currently works as the director of teaching and learning for the Robbinsdale Area Schools where she provides leadership and direction for the division of teaching and learning including curriculum and instruction, professional development, evaluation and assessment, system accountability, early childhood, student services (counselors, nurses, ELL program, desegregation and integration) academic support (after-school and summer programs), instructional media and technology and special programs including International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement.

Gayle has conducted several large-scale evaluations in the district including an evaluation of the all-day, everyday kindergarten program and the middle school program. A follower of U of M Professor Jean King, she prefers the participatory approach to evaluation in order to maximize stakeholder involvement in the evaluation process and to build capacity within the system for continuous improvement. Gayle has received the “Inspiration Award of Excellence” for three consecutive years from the Minnesota Public Relations Association for creating the Annual Report Card, noted for outstanding writing, presentation and public appeal.

The educational administration program, Gayle maintains, draws its strength from the professors, instructors and support staff. “Every professor compelled me to think more critically and every professor challenged me to forever seek the vital connection between research and practice. Moreover, every support staff caused me to believe I was the most favored customer among thousands. The U of M is Minnesota’s most precious resource and the educational administration program is a bright star within that universe.

December 2004