Description:
Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity: Examining the Impact of Bias in Evaluation training will delve into the intricate world of bias, its various forms, and how it impacts decision-making in our evaluations. This learning and reflection session aims to humanize bias and equip participants with the knowledge and tools to recognize, challenge, and manage bias. It is based upon the practice guide, Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity: Diagnose Biases and Systems, developed by Community Science and published by W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Learning Outcomes:
Session I
- Define bias, understand that it is deeply rooted, and acknowledge its influence on decision-making
- Explore and debunk myth that it is biased to do evaluations that center equity.
- Understand what a systems lens is and how it helps with identifying conditions that produce inequities.
- Identify the components of systems and levers of change
- Understand how to design and implement evaluations using a systems lens.
- Identify the ways evaluators can use their power to conduct evaluation in service of racial equity.
Topic 1: What is bias and why we should learn about it
- Learning
activity: Using an identify wheel we will explore our identities and the social
perceptions associated with them
- Learning
activity: Group discussion
- Learning activity: We will use a systems lens to connect inequities to structures and conditions that perpetuate them
Topic 1: Identifying the Pieces of a System and Levers of Change
- Learning activity: We will identify all the pieces of a system and create a diagram to understand what the system components are and where there is potential for creating change.
- Learning activity: Group discussion about tools and approaches for applying a systems lens in different phases of an evaluation.
- Wrap up summary
- Learning activity: We will present choice points for decision-making when designing and implementing evaluations in service of racial equity.
Using AEA Competencies (Methodology, Context, and Interpersonal) and Guiding Principles (Systematic Inquiry, Competence, Integrity, Respect for People, and Common Good and Equity), we are helping evaluators conduct systematic inquiry more effectively to help them to apply methodologies effectively and consistently because of the knowledge of their biases and how that affects their work.
Presenters:
Mariah Laird, MPH, CHES- Associate- Community Science
mlaird@communityscience.com
Mariah Laird, MPH, CHES, Associate, skillfully communicates what others may overlook, using an informal conversation-style of interviewing to establish trust and comfort. She practices utilization evaluation to ensure evaluations produce feasible and tangible action steps and developmental evaluation to ensure learning drives strategies and conducts qualitative research grounded in public health, organizational development and her life experiences as a Black woman. Furthermore, she is exploring how evaluators can acknowledge and ease racial fatigue within the BIPOC communities they interact with as to make the most of their interactions without causing further fatigue.
Maysoun Freij, Ph.D. MPH – Senior Associate – Community Science
mfreij@communityscience.com
Maysoun Freij, Ph.D., MPH, Senior Associate for Health Equity, has extensive experience with programs and research related to health equity. She has done work with and on health care coalitions, health care and language access, immigrant health, social determinants of health, and intersectoral approaches to health and well-being. She has also conducted trainings on immigrants rights to health care access and qualitative research and mixed methods evaluation.
Jasmine Johnson, Ph.D.,- Senior Analyst- Community Science
jjohnson@communityscience.com
Jasmine Johnson, PhD, Senior Analyst, has extensive research and evaluation experience in public health, with a particular focus on rural health in communities of color and the impact on Black women. Experienced in both mixed methods methodology and analysis techniques, including survey design, semi-structured interviews, thematic coding, and binomial regression modeling, Jasmine has examined the barriers to care for Black Appalachian women; stereotypes they faced when seeing providers; and the role of the women’s support system in overcoming healthcare challenges.
Facilitation Experience:
"We at Community Science have experience developing and facilitating small group trainings, internal and external sensemaking sessions, and presentations to clients. Our trainings present a clear definition for achieving equity and justice based upon fair access to resources and opportunities; rights to these resources and opportunities; freedom from discrimination in obtaining resources (as respected by institutions and laws); and the conditions and capacity of people to take advantage of these resources.
"Recent trainings include “A First Step Toward Practicing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity”, and “Transformative Mixed Methods: Addressing Health Disparities with a Social Justice Lens”; both were offered to staff in the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Office of Office of Policy, Performance, and Evaluation (OPPE). For this training, Maysoun Freij, a season public health profession with training experience on immigrants’ rights to health care and mixed methods evaluation, will work with her colleagues Mariah Laird and Jasmine Johnson to engage participants in raising awareness of biases and steps that can be taken to mitigate them for evaluations in service of racial equity."
Dates:
Wednesday, March 27, 12:00PM- 1:30PM ET
Wednesday, April 3, 12:00PM- 1:30PM ET
Note:
Once you purchase the eStudy you must register for each session. Recordings will be made available to registrants unable to attend sessions live. Recordings will be made available to all registrants for 90 days.