In this 2 hour (12-2 EST) webinar on Friday July 19th, Dr. Nisaa Kirtman will dive into the values and practices that can build a foundation for culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE). She will provide an overview of CREE approaches for beginner-to-intermediate learners that outline key principles and theory, importance in evaluation practice, and various aspects of its application. She will re-center evaluators as facilitators of conceptualizing a process and approach by which we generate the knowledge needed to make appropriate decisions or recommendations for a program, organization, or institution. This presentation will address the importance of co-design, participatory approaches, culture and context, being intentional and transparent in our work, and our definitions of equity to help create a better understanding of actionable equity goals. At the end of this presentation, attendees can expect to (a) become familiar with the key differences between a “CREE evaluation” and a “non-CREE evaluation,” (b) identify and explain how culture and context support equitable outcomes, and (c) be better positioned to apply these approaches in research and also advocate for equity-centered approaches within one’s organization or institution. Lastly, Dr. Kirtman will also explore solutions and de-mystify challenges related to equity-centered evaluation, including “big data” and quantitative methods, financial constraints, and lack of buy-in.
About Dr. Kirtman:
Dr. Nisaa Kirtman, Research Principal at Rockman et al Cooperative, is a social psychologist, evaluator, researcher, and strategist, with twenty years of experience designing and conducting research studies in formal and informal (out of school) educational settings, communities, and also the public health sector. Centering her work around social justice, cultural responsiveness, and historically underrepresented and underserved communities, Dr. Kirtman examines social cognition, stereotypes and stereotype threat (particularly their impact on Black students), educational inequities, health inequities, organizational and instructional development, organizational culture and climate, systems change, higher educational settings and departments, and intersectional identities. She has managed both long and short-term mixed methods studies, and has managed several multi-year STEM-education projects partnering with Minority Serving Institutions, primarily Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and out-of-school programming for historically underrepresented youth and girls of color, such as Black Girls Code. These projects are often funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, or private foundations such as Google. She has partnered with non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area, exploring trauma-informed systems (TIS), organizational healing, kinship families, and the use of technology to promote well-being for underserved communities. She is currently a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), American Psychological Association (APA), the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), and the Expanding the Bench Advancing Culturally Responsive Evaluation (ACE) Network. She also serves as Co-Chair for AEA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Work Group. Nisaa has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Scripps College (the women’s college) in Claremont, California, a Master’s degree in Social Psychology from San Francisco State University, and earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Northcentral University. She was born and raised in Oakland, CA, and currently lives in the Northern Bay Area (wine country) with her 8-year-old son, 15-year-old daughter, and husband.
