Sessions Description: This session will explain how public policy processes work and how evaluators can get their evaluations noticed and used by policy makers. It will guide evaluators through the maze of policy processes, such as legislation, regulations, administrative procedures, budgets, re-organizations, and goal setting. It will also explain how policy makers can be identified and reached and describe their preferred writing and other communication styles, what they value in terms policy advice, and when they are open to it. The session will show how to effectively present evaluation findings and recommendations to decision makers of congressional and executive branches of Federal, state, and local governments as well as boards and administrative offices of foundations and not-for-profit public service organizations. It will also explain how to influence policies that affect the evaluation profession.
George F. Grob is President of the Center for Public Program Evaluation. He is an independent consultant focusing on evaluation of public programs and related fields of policy development and performance management. He currently serves as consultant to the AEA Evaluation Policy Task Force. Other recent projects include work for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Aquarium at Baltimore, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Administration, and the Agency for Families and Children. Before establishing this consultancy, he served as Executive Director of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group and Deputy Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has testified before Congress more than two dozen times.