2022
The CES Executive Committee is pleased to inform CES members that one nomination for the 2022-2024 Presidency was received: Andrealisa Belzer put her name forth as Presidential nominee to lead CES' Board of Directors for the next term, which begins July 1, 2022.
In accordance with CES Bylaws (Section 5.02) and Policies (Operational Policy no 1, paragraph 3b) regarding the Election of Officers, this nomination is subject to a review period of four weeks (until May 11, 2022) to inform CES Members of the nomination and invite feedback. HERE
Andrealisa Belzer Presentation Letter
Why I wish to serve you as CES President
My father taught program evaluation at a university and at our dining room table from my earliest childhood in the seventies. Hence, the field shaped my psyche at the same time that it was first becoming formalized in the Canadian federal government, and before the CES would become the first-ever Volunteer Organization for Professional Evaluators. In junior high I won the science fair with a basic pre-test post-test experimental design for exposure to an anti-tobacco film; a controversial social science entry! It was not, however until I was a graduate student participating in a two-day introductory workshop, that I realized evaluation could become my dedicated, full-time vocation. I immediately chose an evaluation project for my graduate thesis and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that THIS was what I wanted to do for a living! I will never forget the excitement of that moment of epiphany. A quarter-century later, my enthusiasm for using evaluation theory and practice to strengthen governance, management, and sense-making has grown to an obsession. Out of loyalty to foundational aspirations for how evaluation should serve society, and also due to conviction that both society and evaluation are in dire need of radical transformation, the Canadian Evaluation Society Strategic Plan, Core Competency Framework, Journal, Conference, community have become an indispensable part of my daily practice.
Volunteering with CES has enabled me to learn shoulder-to-shoulder with CES Fellows, Past Presidents, and a range of other evaluation mentors and peers who have become a second family. In my local Chapter I have held several Board positions: Membership, Professional Development, Partnership and Engagement, President, Conference Co-Chair and now Chapter Representative to the National Board. I am currently Chairing the National Professional Learning Committee and participating in the C2022 Conference Organizing Committee. I have chaired both of the former National Working Groups that evolved into the National Standing Committee for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Environmental Sustainability (ES), that I now participate in. Annual conference planning has become a natural forum for me to support operationalizing of DEI and ES with initiatives such as: a conference greening rubric developed for C2019 and adapted annually thereafter; ; Truth and Reconciliation programming; and an Anti-Racism plenary by Amanuel Melles from the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities.
In my paid employment as a federal evaluation advisor with the Atlantic Region of Indigenous Services Canada, I routinely align my CES volunteer work with my mandate to develop evaluation capacity among public servants and in Indigenous communities and organizations. These partnerships include academic and nonprofit organizations, as well as collaboration across the four Atlantic CES Chapters. In these local and Regional partnerships, I see that the CES National Strategic Principles and commitment to Truth and Reconciliation driving the forward evolution of Canadian evaluation culture and practice across sectors.
Cross-pollination with broader evaluation networks is important for the CES Vision of advancing excellence in evaluation across Canada and internationally. Together with other CES colleagues, I have volunteered on initiatives of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), EvalPartners, Blue Marble Evaluation Network, and the Francophone Evaluation Network (RFE), and some Topical Interest Groups of the American Evaluation Association. I have hyperlinked some recent products from these collaborations in my CV. Being trilingual in English, French and German has been an asset to my participation in conferences of European and African evaluation networks.
My CV provides additional details on formal education and experience. In this letter of introduction, I hope to express how central the CES infrastructure and community are in my paid work, volunteer work, and social life. It would be a pleasure and an honor to work with the National Board, Chapters, Fellows, members, and partner organizations to advance our mission, as your next president.
