The Southern California Evaluation Association (SCEA) is a community of evaluators who are committed to quality and innovation in evaluation practice and research. SCEA’s mission is to strengthen the evaluation field by providing professional development, collaboration, and networking opportunities to evaluators.
Who We Are:
The SCEA was established in 2003 as a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). SCEA members are evaluation practitioners and scholars who are committed to the advancement of the evaluation field. SCEA members practice, research, and teach in various sectors, including education, energy, social services, health, and more. Employment settings include universities, foundations, government, non-profit organizations, and private consulting firms. Members are located throughout Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego and from West Los Angeles to the Inland Empire.
Activities:
To achieve its mission and serve its members, the SCEA offers opportunities to:
- Engage in presentations on topics relevant to evaluators,
- Network with other evaluators,
- Access educational learning resources made available through partnerships with other AEA local affiliate groups,
- Connect to a national network of evaluators, and
- Have insightful and fun discussions with fellow evaluators.
How to connect with SCEA:
Organization:
Anne T. Vo, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Clinical Medical Education and Director of Evaluation at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Anne’s research interests lie at the intersection of comparative evaluation theory, evaluation capacity building, and organizational development. Her scholarship aims to enhance the field’s understanding of how evaluation can be done rigorously and how evaluative knowledge can be leveraged to drive change. Anne’s work can be found in the field’s flagship journals (American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, Evaluation and Program Planning) as articles, book chapters, and books. Anne’s evaluation practice is centered on serving organizations whose constituents come from communities of need, including low-income disadvantaged youth in the K-20 pipeline across Greater Los Angeles, educators working in politically challenging environments in Southeast Asia, and those with stigmatized health conditions such as HIV and obesity. She has also lectured and offered workshops on logic modeling, data analysis and research methods, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals at various universities, evaluation societies, and medical conferences across the country.
Alma Boutin-Martinez, Ph.D., is the Senior Institutional Research Analyst at Fielding Graduate University. In this role, she provides data and analyses to support program evaluation, institutional and program accreditation, learning assessment, and institutional decision-making to advance the university’s mission. Alma earned a Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Cultural Perspective and Comparative Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Prior to joining Fielding, Alma worked as an instructional design consultant at UCSB Collaborate and provided support to faculty and teaching assistants regarding course management technology. In addition, Alma worked for the University of California Educational Evaluation Center and Mosaic Network, INC on multiple projects including the impact of Grant Evaluation Management Solution (GEMS) on the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County and worked on an evaluation of the multi-campus UC Online Instructional Pilot Project. Alma also worked as a researcher for four years at the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Alma has published research on academic resilience, parental engagement, literacy, and academic intrinsic motivation.
Emi Fujita-Conrads, M.A. is a current Ph.D. student in the Social Research Methodology division at the University of California, Los Angeles specializing in Evaluation. She earned her M.A. from the University in 2017. Emi is a graduate researcher at UCLA, where she conducts evaluations with campus support programs and community colleges. Prior to graduate school, Emi supported research and evaluation work at a national youth mentoring non-profit. Her research interests include using evaluation for program improvement and methods for conducting social justice focused and culturally responsive evaluations.
Erika Kato, Ph.D. is a faculty member at California State University, Long Beach in the Educational Leadership Department. She serves as the Center for Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness (CEEE) Project Director for the CSULB HSI-STEM campus evaluation and the CSU HSI-STEM systemwide evaluation, among other campus research projects. She has over ten years of experience in evaluation, quantitative research and institutional research. Prior to joining CSULB, Erika served as Senior Manager of Data Analytics at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, was a researcher for five years at the University of California Educational Evaluation Center, and taught high school and middle school mathematics.
Evelyn Wang, Ed.M., is a doctoral student in the Social Research Methodology division of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, with a focus on Evaluation. She previously earned her master’s in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Prior to her doctoral studies, she was the Senior Research Associate at Children’s Institute, Inc., where she coordinated internal program evaluation and university-partnered research studies. As a graduate student researcher, Evelyn currently conducts evaluations at the UCLA Community School and other school sites in Southern California.
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