Hi!
I think it is important that y’all know something about me (Molly Engle)
and my blog (Evaluation is an everyday activity).
First about me
Currently, I’m the Evaluation Specialist for the Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service, Division of Outreach and Engagement, and a Professor in the College of Education. Working with the Oregon State University faculty has provided (and continues to provide) me with challenges, variety, and adventures.
I became a self-identified evaluator when I attended the first ever annual evaluation (Evaluation ’81) meeting in 1981 in Austin, Texas. (This was a combined meeting of the Evaluation Network and the Evaluation Research Society; the American Evaluation Association wouldn’t happen until 1986.)
Attending this first meeting with other graduate students was life changing. I knew then that this was where I was to be professionally. The American Evaluation Association is my professional home.
My Family
I built my family through adoption as a single parent. My first daughter, Morgan, came home in 1994. In 1998, we moved to Corvallis, OR. My second daughter, Mersedes, came home in 2000 at the age of 4.5 years.
Mersedes 
is now 21 and a senior at Birmingham Southern College (think of it as an exchange, Mom!) She has embraced the South.
Morgan 
is 24. She graduated from Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, FL) in December 2014 (how did that happen?). (I am so thankful she is NOT currently in Florida.) Morgan is in Santa Ana, CA working for a legal firm–a far cry from environmental sciences.
My daughters provide me with the evaluation challenge of balancing work, home, and family in a way that makes evaluation an everyday activity. Both girls are away from Corvallis now and I have another evaluation activity to resolve. How do I continue to make a difference?
My blog
Although I’d hoped that this blog would be a place for conversation–ordinary, everyday conversation–you know, making comments and posing questions. It seems to be more a forum of me telling what I think at a given moment. (That may be OK; or not.)
Although this blog is about program evaluation, it could also be about a product, a policy, personnel, a performance, or a process, all of which can be evaluated. (I tend to make any intervention a “program” and talk about evaluation from that view.) My many years of experience in community-based program evaluation and wide body of literature (and there is a rich literature for program evaluation) will ground my posts. I’ll often give citations with my posts; my book shelf is overflowing with references.
You can contact me through the blog–comments are always welcome or at this address
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/employee/molly-engle
Glad you are joining me. Look forward to hearing from you. Welcome to my blog.
