The organizers are very pleased to announce a new feature for C2022: all three keynote conversations will be LIVE STREAM events! For more information: https://c2022.evaluationcanada.ca/registration-fees/

Keynote: Isha Khan

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion – It feels like now more than ever we want to foster a sense of belonging in our organizations. Whether we are just starting to recognize we make better decisions when we consider a diversity of perspectives – or that the tools we’ve used to build our workplaces and measure their success need to change – we already have a common desire to create healthier, stronger workplaces.

It’s important to move beyond the buzzwords of DEI. There are some important principles to consider, especially from the perspective of evaluators. Why are we committed to DEI? How do we measure impact in DEI work? Is a focus on representation enough? Do we need to change how we measure progress? Are there things we can’t measure and is that okay? What does success look like, and if there are things we can’t measure, how will we know what success is?

These questions aren’t easy to answer. But even beginning to try means we are already thinking about change, why it’s needed and what steps we need to take to get to where we want to be. This is critical across all organizations and
workplaces but especially for professions and workplaces which have not traditionally included people from equity-seeking groups. In this keynote presentation, Isha Khan will challenge participants to think about why inclusion matters in our workplaces and how decolonizing the ways we think about evaluation and success can lead to meaningful change across our organizations.

Isha Khan (she/her) is a lawyer, educator and community leader dedicated to building a culture of human rights in Canada and beyond. She assumed her role as CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in August of 2020.

Born in Winnipeg, she holds degrees from the University of Manitoba and the University of Victoria. She worked in private practice in Calgary before returning home to lead institutional development and change management at United Way Winnipeg. She served at the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, first as legal counsel and then as Executive Director, moving forward several important rights-based initiatives and public education campaigns. Before assuming her role at the Museum, she was appointed by the Government of Canada to review the conditions of incarcerated people in segregation in federal penitentiaries.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, she is also a dedicated community volunteer who serves as Board Chair of United Way Winnipeg.

Throughout her life, Isha has helped build communities where everyone is respected and empowered to reach their full potential. She continues that work at the Museum, engaging people around the world in a growing movement for hope and human rights.

Fellows’ Strand Plenary Panel

Working Nation to Nation: Using Evaluation as a Path to Truth and Reconciliation

A question that is often asked is; “What can we do as evaluators to support truth and reconciliation?” While our intentions are good, we are not always sure how to put our intentions into action. The members of this plenary panel will present an example of how a Canadian federal government department and First Nations are working nation to nation to decolonize evaluation, build understanding of Indigenous approaches to evaluation, and enhance the capacity of Indigenous evaluators. The initiative, which is multi-faceted and multi-year, is a concrete example of how evaluators – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – and commissioners of evaluation can work together, using evaluation as a vehicle for truth and reconciliation. The panelists will also challenge us to think about how, in our own work, we can walk the path to truth and reconciliation.

This high powered panel is comprised of: Andrealisa Belzer CE, CES award winner and Senior Evaluation Advisor First Nations and Inuit Health Branch – Atlantic Region Indigenous Services Canada; Vanessa Nevin, (Mi’kmaw) Director of Health, Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat and Chair of the Stewardship Circle; Mindy Denny, (Mi’kmaw) Director of First Nation Information Governance and Data Projects, Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq; and, Dr. Nicole Bowman (Lunaape/Mohican), AEA award winner, President of Bowman Performance Consulting, and Associate Scientist with the University of Wisconsin. The panel will be introduced and moderated by Larry K. Bremner CE FCES (Métis), former CES National President, driving force behind the creation of the global network EvalIndigenous, and President of Proactive Information Services Inc.

Andrealisa Belzer is a Credentialed Evaluator and CES Award winner, employed with the Atlantic Region of Indigenous Services Canada. She serves as Past President of CES Nova Scotia Chapter, and on the National Board’s Standing Committee for DEI and Sustainability. She also participates in the EvalPartners EvalIndigenous Network and the Global Advisory Council for Blue Marble Evaluation. Andrealisa has practised health and social services evaluation since 1995, in Canada and internationally. She is committed to evaluative and decolonizing practice that facilitates systems transformation toward mutualism.

Vanessa Nevin is a member of Sipekne’katik First Nation within Mi’kmaki. She is working currently as the Director of Health at the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Secretariat (APC). Vanessa leads a dynamic health department that works to improve the health and wellbeing of First Nations. She has worked for APC for over 12 years in Health, Indian Residential School, Elections, and Social. Vanessa obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in History and minor in Greek and Roman Studies from the University of Victoria, and completed graduate credits for Royal Roads University’s Master of Arts program for Conflict Analysis and Management. Furthermore, she has certificates from Royal Roads University in Negotiations and from the Justice Institute of British Columbia in Aboriginal Trauma.

Mindy Denny is Mi’kmaw and a member of the Eskasoni First Nation in Unama’ki (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). Mindy works with the Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq, where she is the Director of the Information Governance & Data Projects department. Her key work involves engaging with First Nation leadership to develop information governance capacity at the community level, and on the national level, working with governments to explore and develop policy that protects First Nations’ information and promotes First Nation Data Sovereignty. For more than a decade, Mindy has advocated for, and shared information about, the First Nations principles of OCAP®.

Nicole Bowman/Waapalaneexkweew (Lunaape/Mohican), PhD, is a traditional Ndulunaapeewi Kwe (Lunaape Woman) and a traditional community member and citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation in Wisconsin. She is the President of Bowman Performance Consulting and an Associate Scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an Associate Editor and co-founder of Roots and Relations, a permanent section in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. Dr. Bowman is also AEA’s 2018 Robert Ingle Service Award winner (the youngest and first Indigenous awardee). She has served decades as chair or co-chair of AEA’s Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation TIG, in addition to participating in numerous on global evaluation initiatives. She is a curious, creative, and courageous innovator whose academic lodge sits at the place where traditional knowledge and Tribal sovereignty intersect with evaluation, policy and research.

Larry Bremner (Métis), a Credentialed Evaluator, has worked in evaluation for 40+ years, across Canada and internationally. In 1984, he established Proactive to serve the non-profit and public sectors. A former CES National President, as Past President he was the driving force behind creation of the global network EvalIndigenous and its first Chair. He has received the CES Service Award and the Contribution to Evaluation in Canada Award. In 2019, he was inducted as a CES Fellow and is currently Chair of the Fellows’ Executive, as well as Associate Editor and co-founder of Roots and Relations. As evaluators, Larry believes we are compelled to expand our future to one that is inclusive of voices and approaches, if we are to support reconciliation and address the crucial social, environmental, and economic issues that we face in today’s world.

Keynote: Veronica Olazabal

Audre Lorde, an American writer, feminist, womanist, and civil rights activist famously wrote in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

Today’s challenges call upon us to act with urgency and harness our diverse perspectives and mindsets to transform the systems, policies, and practices that have brought us to this place of multiple crises. This call to action is not new for our evaluation community. Numerous branches of evaluation, including participatory methods, stakeholder-based methods, developmental evaluation, transformative evaluation and equitable evaluation have been chipping away at the notion that
data and evidence generated by and through evaluation must be inclusive, culturally appropriate, contextualized and honor the diverse communities where we work.

And as evaluators, we are very aware that we play a role in constructing, reconstructing and deconstructing evidence with, for and through our many diverse stakeholders. Taking this responsibility serious, many evaluation associations have institutionalized professional ethics and standards that enable us to act with responsibility and care.

Collectively and individually, we clearly have the will and the skill to embrace Audrey’s Lorde quote. What is missing to drive transformation? During this session, the keynote speaker will prompt us to look inward by looking outward, beyond the evaluation landscape prompting questions such as:

• How can we broaden our own frames of reference and approach our evaluative work with a diverse mindset?
• What are our own cognitive biases so that if made visible, would enable authentic discussions around diverse methods and methodologies?
• Where are the analogs so that we can bring diverse perspectives and new thinking into our work?

Veronica Olazabal is Chief Impact and Evaluation Officer at The BHP Foundation, President of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Her professional background range ~20 years and four continents and includes designing, implementing and leading global programs, research and evaluation for The Rockefeller and MasterCard Foundations. Veronica currently serves on various funding and advisory boards including The World Benchmarking Alliance. She is the recipient of several industry awards and has published in the American Journal of Evaluation, Evaluation, and the Stanford Social Innovations Review.

Ms Olazabal holds a B.A. in Communications and a masters degrees in Urban Policy and Planning from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University.