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AEA Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award Remarks

Presented on October 23, 2024 at the American Evaluation Association conference: "Evaluation 2024: Amplifying and Empowering Voices in Evaluation" in Portland, Oregon

 

Transcript: Greetings everyone. Can you hear me? So funny story, I didn't do it because of how they actually gave me the award, but I graduated from an all girls school, (Agnes Irwin). We dressed all in white, and I was trained to curtsy when receiving my diploma, and I was pretty sure if Eric had given the award to me, I would have curtsied, but it felt awkward, so I didn’t do it but I did just do it. I can’t even help myself.


The fact that this award is being given on the day when we are on the stage recognizing Ricardo Millet  is incredibly moving, it made me cry, so I don't really have any words for that.

Alva and Gunnar Myrdal and their distinct disciplines offered insights about our world and our interconnectedness in different ways. They invited us to be in relationship with what we believe to be true in ways that had us take stock of our choices and to make different ones. They understood that at the end of the day -and at the beginning - our efforts should be in service of our collective humanity.  Evaluative practice in all of its manifestations is no different.   

I am here because of the hearts and kindness of many people. 

  • those of you who cajoled me to consider being nominated and patiently waited while I put together a CV for the first time in - I’m going to say 10 years but it’s probably longer

  • colleagues spanning my professional life who shared generous reflections and experiences captured in the nomination package - I am a forever fan

  • client partners over the past 25 years around the US who experimented with me ways of being evaluative that continue to inspire and elevate my practice - you are changing the world 

  • the AEA community, which when I first started asking or pondering the question “Tell me again why we’re doing this, and for what end, and who decided?” you welcomed me for the most part

  • those of you who have been a steady heart beat of ‘this can be and should be different’ and offered ways to guide us.  I am grateful for your perseverance. 

GIF of Jara behind a podium on a stage pointing to a slide on the screen behind her
  • {pointing to slide show} I’m not supposed to be looking at me that’s supposed to be Ricardo- just to be clear I’m not thanking myself.

  • to my funny and brutally honest friends, my parents who gave me a childhood where my gender, my sex and the socially constructed idea of  race did not limit me, and to my partner of 30 years who when I decided to launch a solo practitioner in 2002 said, “I got you. I love you”; and 

  • lastly to my ancestors brought to this land in the 1600’s who found ways to own their lives, create new norms, find love and create existences beyond what society said was available to them. My deepest gratitude. I am merely a continuation of your dreams. 

For the majority of us, all these rules were made up by people, in other times with hidden purposes and mindsets that seek control and certainty over clarity and curiosity. It’s up to us to embrace the complexity and multiplicity of the human experience and to bring our fullest humanity.  There is simply too much at stake. 

I am humbled. Thank you.



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