With 120+ Evaluators and growing in the Network, we are in conversation regularly with ACE Evaluation Network Members, the Game Changers. Here we offer space for them to share their experiences, perspectives, and current projects with the ETB® community.

ACE Evaluation Network Member Shristi Reddy, MPH is an evaluator and health education specialist with The LOOP with more than 15 years of experience in public health evaluation, research, and program implementation. Her work spans mental health, substance use prevention, HIV/AIDS, and tobacco control. Guided by Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE) principles and her lived experience as a first-generation Indo-Fijian, Shristi centers community voice, cultural humility, and participatory approaches to strengthen programs, foster collaboration, and advance systems change and health equity.

Moving From Findings to What Comes Next

By Shristi Reddy

What is your evaluator origin story?

My path into evaluation started with a mentor who believed that data should spark questions, not just answer them. Shortly after earning my MPH, I joined an HIV prevention program as a project coordinator. There, I had the privilege of working alongside Dr. Robynn Battle, a skilled evaluator who didn’t just share findings with our team; she invited us into the meaning behind them.

That spirit of curiosity and inclusion stayed with me. Years later, when I found myself at a career crossroads, I reached out to Dr. Battle again. That conversation opened the door to conducting focus group interviews, surfacing community voices, and translating lived experiences into meaningful findings.

Today, my program evaluation practice is rooted in that same philosophy: The people most affected by a program are also its most important storytellers. I partner with diverse

What keeps you engaged in the ACE Evaluation Network?

I am relatively new to Expanding the Bench® (ETB) and the ACE Evaluation Network and am still exploring all it has to offer. What has drawn me in so far are the timely, relevant training topics and engaging speakers.

Share something that is exciting to you in your current work.

One of my evaluation projects is wrapping up next year, and as we near the finish line, the feeling is bittersweet but also deeply exciting. I’ve worked on this project for five years, through several key staff changes, and now, with a new director in place, I’m working with the team to use their data to prepare for the next iteration of their programming. As we close out the work in their respective jurisdictions, I’m partnering with staff to share key findings with community members and stakeholders in conversations that bring together not just my analysis of the data, but the observations and insights staff have gathered along the way.

This final stretch has also opened opportunities to present our work at conferences and to think creatively about how we share data, moving beyond the traditional report to formats like interactive dashboards, infographics, and community presentations that make the findings more accessible and engaging. My time on this project is limited, as is often the case for an external evaluator, and so it’s important to empower the team to look at their own data and ask questions of it themselves.

What fuels your CREE practice?

My CREE practice is fueled by a deep belief that evaluation should be grounded in the lived experience of the communities it serves. Having worked extensively with diverse communities, I saw firsthand how cultural, social, and historical context shape programs and the outcomes we measure. For example, I worked with a faith-based community organization whose staff regularly stepped outside their formal scope of work, checking in on community members and helping families navigate other systems because they understood that meeting their community’s immediate needs was inseparable from the program’s long-term goals.

Capturing that reality meant looking beyond the metrics in the original workplan to reflect the full scope of what the organization was doing for its community. Data is a powerful tool for telling community stories when the communities most impacted by an opportunity have the chance to understand it.