With 118+ Evaluators and growing in the Network, we are highlighting an ACE Evaluation Network Member each month to share their experiences and current projects with the ETB® community.

Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable (ACE) Evaluation Network Member Min Ma is the Founder and Principal of Data+Soul Research, a research and evaluation consulting firm in Boston, MA. She draws from a broad toolbox of evaluation, social science, and human-centered design methods with aims to conduct evaluation with “data + soul.” Her approach is people-centered, creative, and reflective of her commitment to furthering racial equity using evaluation and evaluative thinking as a tool. She has led research and evaluation projects in the social sector for more than 15 years. Min serves as the President of the Greater Boston Evaluation Network.

What first attracted you to the ACE Evaluation Network?

When I started my independent evaluation practice 10 years ago, I quickly learned that any opportunity to connect with other evaluation practitioners would be invaluable. Over time, the questions I bring to these spaces have changed. My early interests in the ACE Evaluation Network were around the unique networking and professional development opportunities. My own culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) practice was taking shape organically as I worked with one of my first evaluation clients – a local coalition focused on racial equity in mental health. Through the ACE Evaluation Network, I was eager to sharpen my analysis and hone my own evaluation approach by better understanding how it fit within the framework of CREE.

What do you value most about the ACE Evaluation Network?

I’m still excited about the opportunity to grow my network of thought partners and collaborators, except now, I’m showing up with a different set of questions. As I grow my small evaluation firm into something more ‘mid-sized’ I’m eager to connect with peers who are also learning lessons around what it takes to build diverse teams (and companies) – with structure and internal systems that support culturally responsive and equitable evaluation practice.

What’s a current project you are working on?

In collaboration with Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) Cohort 5 Scholar Miranda Hill, our team designed and rolled out the Data+Soul Studio this fall. It’s a new project that offers trainings and a makerspace for evaluators looking to set time aside to focus on “the how” in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation. This project serves our firm’s broader vision of a social sector that uses data + soul to build more equitable and just futures, where evaluations are more rigorous and relevant because they center the stories, assets, and dreams of communities most affected by the work, and data and evaluative practices are generative (not extractive).

In a second collaboration, we worked with LEEAD Cohort 5 Scholar Swathi Reddy to re-imagine what a CREE cross-site evaluation of a federally funded grant portfolio might look like. This portfolio funds prevention and intervention innovations, systems change, and policy solutions to improve the lives of children and families impacted by domestic violence. Together, we are building a toolbox of CREE evaluation practices based on the work of grantees and designing a cross-site evaluation that uses Outcome Harvesting to lift up stories of impact across 50 grant sites across the US.

To learn more about Min, view her Evaluator Database profile.