The Detour Is the Point: Six early career evaluators on how we got here
By: Hassan Lubega, Alizea Álvarez Sookram, Bobbie D. Norman, Brisa García, Debby Fernand, Kayla Benitez Álvarez, and M. Outlaw
Behind every evaluator is a story that weaves together many fields, relationships, joys, and challenges. Our stories are no different, navigating unexpected paths, learning with generous mentors, withstanding hard job markets, and recognizing skills we didn’t know counted until they did.
We are six evaluators: Data+Soul team members, collaborators, clients, and connections. We are also six people who carry our personal identities like culture, gender, race, and disability into a field that has historically asked practitioners to separate who they are from how they work. Together, we recently had an honest conversation about the journey before and into evaluation today. Whether exploring the field or looking to continue supporting up-and-coming evaluators, there’s something in this conversation for you.
There were five key lessons we shared during our conversation together. The first being…
Lesson 1: Nobody grows up wanting to be an evaluator
Kayla: “I didn't know what research and evaluation was when I was in high school, but most people don't. Most people don't say 'I want to be an evaluator when I grow up.’
It’s hard to say that many of us were born wanting to be evaluators. Each one of us has vastly different journeys into the field: travelling through neuroscience, sociology, psychology, theater, social work, and environmental law, among many others. Some of us are still finding our way into the field!
It’s not uncommon for the earliest experiences of evaluation to be from the other side of the desk:
Brisa: “I became aware of assessment and evaluation early on, due to my learning disability, I felt like I was always being assessed from a really young age. Over time, it started to feel daunting—something I honestly hated—because it kind of defined me, or at least shaped how my parents saw me and how they thought I should learn. So, I knew it was a field through that experience, but I didn’t really understand what it would look like to actually work in it.”
And yet for others, Programs like Upward Bound and the McNair Scholars opened doors we didn’t know existed.
Kayla: "I'm the beneficiary of many federally funded educational initiatives. I did Upward Bound when I was in high school, which is basically like a federally funded program for low income students of color, first generation college students, all of which I was when I was in high school. And so I feel like that was my first jumping point of college and higher education and research being available and being an option in my life."
The throughline across our stories is that exposure matters. We didn’t plan to become evaluators: somebody or something showed us that it was an option. All of us can be that person for someone else.
Lesson 2: And yet despite that, you’re probably already an evaluator!
Here’s something we wish someone had let us know sooner: the skills that make us good at this work rarely come from formally studying evaluation. Most of us built them somewhere else entirely.
Outlaw: “I have a degree in theater. I'm not an actor. But you do a lot of interviewing of people, and you learn communication skills. Theater taught me … about the importance of how you interact with people… the way you interact with people is something you get by learning how to communicate.”
Kayla: “My master’s is in evaluation, which is very rare. People in this field typically don’t have a degree in evaluation.”
Meeting people where they’re at, cultural competency, translating findings into actionable learnings, creativity, these are all skills we bring from our varied pasts. What unites our experiences isn’t where we come from, it’s how we think. Evaluation requires some serious out-of-the-box thinking, and many of the unique skills we bring to the table were built outside of evaluation.
Not to mention that the skills you are using right now in your job or at school are already evaluation skills:
Outlaw: “I've applied to 95 jobs, and probably 95% of them have required some level of evaluation in there. Regardless of whether they're like a research firm, if it's public health, like the Boston Public Health Commission, or the state or the city government… you need someone that can look at data and analyze data and write reports…most jobs require evaluation.”
An important reminder we all appreciated during our conversation: just because these skills didn’t start in evaluation doesn’t mean they are any less valuable. With the way evaluation and research spaces are structured, it’s easy for imposter syndrome to sneak in. Definitions of what counts as “rigorous” and who gets to define that didn’t always reflect our personal identities. But the skills we carried into it are real, and the field is richer for them.
Lesson 3: Curiosity is key
Brisa: “This work invites people who love being problem solvers and asking questions. Sometimes you feel like you're asking too many questions, but pursuing those questions is what leads you to the root cause or the answer you were looking for.”
So what do we do with those skills? The key word we all brought up was curiosity. Curiosity isn’t a skill itself, it’s a robust approach to evaluation. It’s being able to identify different learning opportunities and using questions as the vehicle for deep learning.
Lesson 3.5 That means embracing the obvious opportunities…
Debby: “I've always come out better from [GBEN] discussions, and even just from listening and learning and putting myself out there.”
Professional networks like the Greater Boston Evaluation Network (GBEN) and annual conferences like the American Evaluation Association (AEA) have been great resources for connecting with other evaluators and learning new skills and opportunities within the field. These are spaces where the field takes stock of itself, letting you listen to what the conversations, debates, and questions actually are.
Lesson 3.75 …and the not so obvious ones
Alizea: "Embrace this lull in the sector. This has really been an opportunity for unexpected learnings and further growth for me... there's small pockets of opportunities, like little bitty stars in the night sky."
The job market is hard right now, but that doesn’t mean you’re not building key skills that position you to be an evaluator:
Brisa: "I had a lot of trouble finding an evaluation job straight out of grad school, so I worked as a program implementer and manager. It actually ended up being really helpful, because I was able to have a much more on-the-ground experience with the actual communities we're working with, before pulling back to design evaluation techniques which can be really difficult if you never actually engage with the community you're evaluating."
Bobbie D: "There's a certain amount of freedom you can have to explore and learn when you're in a space where the expectation is that you're going to learn–like a fellowship program–as opposed to jumping straight into a nine-to-five, where the expectation is that you produce a work product."
We've found that our seasons of exploration like fellowships, adjacent roles, and even the current disinvestment in the sector can be exactly the space we needed to figure out what kind of evaluators we want to be. Keep an open mind about where evaluation shows up. That could be the doctor’s office, a sports field, on TV, or really anywhere. That wider lens and the willingness to draw inspiration from unexpected places is what keeps our work alive.
Lesson 4: At the end of the day, we can’t do it alone
Debby: “Growth happens in relationship with people, not in isolation.”
One thing we all agreed on: mentorship isn’t just a person, it’s a network. And it takes intentional energy to actively cultivate that network.
Some of us were lucky enough to have mentors or supervisors who made opportunities for us to learn out loud:
Debby: “My supervisor created spaces where asking questions as an early career evaluator didn’t feel embarrassing or daunting. It was ‘what are your questions? How can I support you? How can I grow your skills?’ ... a lot of defining my role and the skills I needed to learn was collaborative.
Bobbie D: “Having a supervisor who was really supportive of me exploring things–that flexibility to try things, write a survey that’s not that great, and then figure out what it means to write a better one. That was really, really helpful. Especially when you’re not formally trained in evaluation.”
Not all of us have had that built in support but that is okay, support can also be built.
Alizea: “If you don’t have a mentor or somebody to look to, put yourself out there a little bit. I know it can be really challenging and scary to introduce yourself and ask someone to chat for 30 minutes, but it’s worth it, and it always has a great result.”
We put ourselves out there so we can reflect and grow together. The insights and wisdom we gain from sharing space are the same insights and wisdom that fuel our evaluation practice
Our conversation was about our lived experiences, but it was also about the field we continue to build. We feel the pressures–federal government cuts, a struggling job market, a lack of representation of our people: Black people, immigrants, trans people, Latine people, among many others. We are intimately aware of the realities of exclusion in these spaces, and we are already here as the early-career evaluators of yesterday showing up to keep on cultivating an evaluation field that continues to be reimagined in ways that are more joyful, more culturally responsive, and more human.
Hassan Lubega (he/she/they) is a Managing Consultant at Data+Soul, where they support social impact organizations to grow their equity-focused data, evaluation, and strategy work. Drawing from a belief that leadership starts from what people already bring to the room, he spends his time as managing consultant designing resources and pathways for emergent researchers and evaluators to learn, grow, and drive their own professional journeys. The through-line of Hassan’s work is building the conditions for people to do their best work, whether that’s a community grantee, a cross-sector coalition, or a new evaluator three months into their first job. They received their B.S. in Behavior and Health from Boston University and M.B.A. with dual focuses in Business Analytics and Healthcare from Northeastern University.
Alizea Sookram Álvarez is a social worker who recently stepped into the evaluation field after completing a Master’s in Program Evaluation & Data Analytics at Arizona State University. As an early-career evaluator, she's spending this time exploring where she fits by taking on applied projects, building her skills, and connecting with others who are shaping the field. Her interests center around capacity building, systems thinking, and the idea that what we measure, and how we tell those stories, shapes decisions, strategy, and where resources move.
Bobbie D. Norman is a Research Associate at Data+Soul Research. She has experience working for non-profit organizations in both the legal and educational niches of the environmental sector. Most recently, Bobbie D. supported Mass Audubon’s internal evaluator in her role as the Environmental Education and Engagement Fellow and conducted research focused on equitable community engagement at an urban nature center in Boston. She’s continued that work by building partnerships and community engagement expertise as a Boston University Media Innovation and Social Impact Community Storytelling Fellow.
In her current role as Research Associate at Data+Soul Research, Bobbie D supports team members with data collection and analysis. Through her project work, she continues to develop skills in critically examining program theory, to support non-profits in understanding their impact and communicating it to community members, funders, and other stakeholders.
Brisa García is an Impact and Evaluation Manager at Jumpstart for Young Children. Her work focuses on leveraging language environment data to inform program evaluation and improvement. She is particularly interested in making data-driven insights accessible and meaningful for those engaged in classroom-facing work.
Debby Fernand (she/her) comes from a background in the social sciences. She holds a Masters in Applied Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Bachelors in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her current work focuses on supporting nonprofit organizations through data-driven research and evaluation. She currently works as an Evaluation Associate at Pine Street Inn in Boston, where she supports program outcomes reporting and evaluation planning across shelter, housing, and workforce development programs. In her work, she uses qualitative and quantitative analysis to produce reports that help programs understand trends and improve services for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Kayla Benítez Álvarez (she/her) is a Senior Research Associate at Data+Soul Research where she supports and leads mixed-methods evaluations of programs related to educator well-being, youth development, and public health. Grounded in a culturally-responsive, equity-centered approach, Kayla believes that communities are the experts on their own lives and that evaluation should reflect that. Kayla received her B.A. in Applied Psychology and Human Development and M.A. in Research and Evaluation Methods from the Boston College Lynch School of Education.
Outlaw is a public health professional who tripped into evaluation after finishing grad school. They are dedicated to promoting systems change through the lens of equity and justice. They have held many different careers over their life including: EMT, teacher, technical director, medical assistant, and evaluator and have found their world inside and outside of the workforce all the richer for skills they have developed and the people they have met as a result. Outlaw’s biggest focus lies in building and supporting community wherever they go and reading ridiculous numbers of books.