Organizational Evaluation

Organizational Evaluation

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

10:00am - 11:30am CST

ZOOM Webinar: $50

About this session: An organizational evaluation considers the overall functioning of an organization including values, mission, policies, functions (finance, communication, staffing including volunteer and programs), governance structure, and the internal environment and climate, as well as external factors impacting the organization. It is important for all organizations to conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation of their organizational process, policies, and functions in order to continually grow and provide the right services, at the right time, to the right people. Organizational evaluation helps you learn what you do well and how you can do it better. During the workshop there will provide an overview of conducting organizational evaluations and share an applied example of an assessment conducted with a Chicago-based non-profit organization.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the value of planning for and conducting organizational evaluations.
2. How to conduct these with a culturally responsive lens.

Who Should Participate:   Executive Directors, Finance Officers, Management Staff, Board Members, and Staff

About the Presenter:  Dr. Lisa Aponte-Soto, PhD, MHA is currently the president of Tanoma Consulting, LLC where she leads partnerships to conduct transformative culturally responsive research, evaluation, and capacity building services to advance health, education, and workforce equity. In this capacity, she supports NIH funded community engaged research projects and conducts evaluation of programs, systems, and processes to advance equitable practices across industry sectors nationally. She facilitates cultural sensitivity workshops and capacity building training on culturally responsive evaluation and community engaged research. She is also an adjunct faculty member teaching health research literacy and public health at DePaul University and the community health worker field practicum at Malcolm X College. She has over 20 years of experience working in academic, social services, and health care settings, spearheading administrative operations, program management, grants management, evaluation, and research.

In her previous role as the Associate Director of Community Based Research and Evaluation at the University of Illinois at Chicago Office of the Associate Chancellor of Health Affairs for Community-Based Practice, Dr. Aponte-Soto established and convened a community-based research council composed of patients and practitioners to inform ongoing monitoring and evaluation and its effects on outcomes-based research. This allowed for the inclusion of multiple perspectives in the design of research and evaluation practices, particularly marginalized voices. She also led a portfolio of community research and evaluation projects to foster equitable health care access, screening, treatment, and outcomes in dual role as a Research Scientist and Co-Chair of Community Engagement for the University of Illinois at Chicago Cancer Center.

Prior to this role, Dr. Aponte-Soto served as National Program Deputy Director of New Connections: Increasing Diversity of RWJF Programming, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. New Connections aims to increase the diversity of perspectives informing RWJF programs by providing research funding and career development opportunities to a broad network of researchers and evaluators from historically underrepresented groups working in health policy, health care, social science, and related disciplines. She has also formerly led similar community-based career development initiatives at the local and national level to increase equitable representation of racial and ethnic students and professionals across the educational and career pipeline in social sciences, STEM, and health professions.

As part of her volunteer efforts, Dr. Aponte-Soto facilitates COVID-19 community health worker education in partnership with community-based organizations and academic institutions in the Chicagoland area through Illinois Unidos. She also currently serves as Co-Chair of the Community Health Worker Committee and is a member of the Health and Education Committees of Illinois Unidos, a statewide consortium working with community-based organizations, health professionals, and elected officials to mitigate inequities (e.g., unemployment, housing, food access, education, health care access, etc.) that have been magnified among Latino communities as a result of COVID-19. Additionally, she is the Co-Chair of the Health and Wellness Committee for the Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago. Dr. Aponte-Soto values her time mentoring emerging researchers and evaluators. She is a founding member of the Latinx Responsive Evaluation Discourse (LaRED) Topical Interest Group (TIG) and a former Board member of the American Evaluation Association. She also serves as the Director of the Evaluation Pathways Initiative, a program the helps build the pipeline of culturally responsive evaluators of color in the Chicagoland area.

Dr. Aponte-Soto earned the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Community Health Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health with a concentration in Behavioral Science, Health Promotion, and Research Methodology. She also holds a Master of Health Policy and Administration from Governors State University. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology as well as Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language, Literature, and Translation from Loyola University Chicago. She is alumna of the American Evaluation Association Graduate Education Diversity Internship program, which aims to increase the pool of culturally responsive scholars from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. Dr. Aponte-Soto is currently a fellow of the ACE (ACE) Evaluation Network She is also a research associate of the Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) Center at the University of Illinois. Among her honors, she was recognized as the Latinx Evaluator of the Year in 2018 by the LaRED TIG of the American Evaluation Association and as the Outstanding Public Health Professional by the American Public Health Association Latino Caucus in 2015 and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Optimista Hall of Fame 2013 Inductee.