With 105 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 Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, PhD, MPH, or Dr. Sharon as she affectionately likes to be called, is a Ghanaian-American Black woman, gem of the Creator, wife, and mama of three babies. She is also an author, poet, and an award winning scholar activist by trade. Her sweet spot in life is bringing together her faith, innovation, the tools of critical thinking and analysis, as well as human-centered research and evaluation to inform Indigenous, anti-racist, and innovative ways of honoring our communities with responsive health models. She works toward this goal, as the Principal of TERSHA LLC, by: a) developing culturally centered frameworks for transformation and community partnerships; b) unlocking authentic, creative, and equitable leadership that taps into all of our being as humans through storytelling, entrepreneurship, and decision making representation; and c) speaking on inclusive care practices and capacity for a thriving workforce.

What first attracted you to the ACE Evaluation Network?

I was in a transition period between jobs sometime in 2018 and was feeling a bit like an outsider in the field with my minimal connections within the American Evaluation Association (AEA). I happened to stumble upon the Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) program first, but decided to pass on the opportunity at the time. I do not exactly recall how I came across the ACE Evaluation Network, but after inquiring about the eligibility of my international evaluation work, I jumped at the opportunity to apply for membership. It was truly divine alignment of sorts because even though there was an issue with application submission, the previous ACE Evaluation Network Project Director London Losey reached out to help me fix it for submission. I was so elated when I got accepted because I discovered some names I had been admiring in the field such as fellow Network Members Geri Lynn Peak, Nicole Bowman-Farrell, Jara Dean-Coffey, and Vidhya Shanker.

What do you value most about the ACE Evaluation Network?

I love the connection and belonging I feel as both an Evaluator and researcher in the Network. More importantly, the sense of camaraderie of speaking the same language of embodying CREE in my work, dialoguing through communities of practice, and networking with Funders who engage with CREE Evaluators. Additionally, the Network serves as a medium to create sustainability in the workforce for CREE advancement in the evaluation field, and one of my favorite tasks is to be a reviewer of applications for future cohorts of the Network. One of the amazing, badass colleagues I’ve encountered in the Network is Norma Martínez-Rubin with whom I have developed a framework to be published in a CREE text book. Other amazing colleagues in the Network I have engaged with are those also in the Evaluator Engagement Consultation Network: Afi Wiggins, Michael Arnold, Mindelyn Anderson, Chandria Jones, Art Hernandez, Kimberly Nicole Harris, and Osa Maiyanne Adaján.

What’s a current project you are working on?

I am currently working on an OpEd as one of the 2022 Public Voices Fellow of AcademyHealth, in partnership with TheOpEdProject. The focus of my topic is interrogating how incomplete health equity is without an anchoring to community in our work as researchers and Evaluators.

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