The Contribution to Evaluation in Canada Award recognizes an individual or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the theory and/or practice of evaluation in Canada. We are pleased to announce one of this year’s winners is Lynda Rey!
Lynda Rey, PhD, CE, has been involved in a number of training events not only as an École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) professor, but also as a consultant, an action-research specialist and an instructor in the French version of ENAP’s International Program in Development Evaluation Training. Her personality, experience and knowledge facilitate the connections she makes with learners, be they newbies or senior managers. Her mentorship has also brought large numbers of new practitioners and users to the world of evaluation.
Lynda’s influence reaches far beyond Canada through her consulting, training and volunteer involvement, where she represents Canadian values and expertise masterfully in particular in the areas of equity and decolonisation.
Over the past three years, Lynda has been the representative of the CES on the Board of the Regroupement francophone de l’évaluation (RFE), an international association of 23 national evaluation societies who share French as a national language. At the RFE, she has made her mark by organizing a transparent planning process; steering consequential strategic decisions; taking part in evaluation capacity development efforts; and contributing substantially to the bi-annual conference of the RFE, which took place last July in Luxembourg and where she delivered the opening keynote.
In addition to an impressive personal publication record, Lynda was Co-Director of Publication for “L’évaluation en contexte de développement” in 2022. This is a synthesis manual full of real-life examples that introduces theories and concepts relevant to evaluation, particularly development evaluation. This 500-page publication is available in open-access in its digital form and supports the dissemination of evaluation knowledge and contributes to an evaluation and learning culture in French-speaking countries. It introduces evaluation as a management tool, a method of continuous improvement and learning, a social discipline, a professional practice, as well as a human adventure. Lynda was instrumental in the co-creation of this work by 46 authors, which is of great importance for the French-speaking community.
Congratulations to Lynda Rey!