Reframing Evaluation Through Appreciative Inquiry

Reframing Evaluation Through Appreciative Inquiry is the first book to introduce the application of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), an approach for organizational development and change, to the practice of evaluation. Authors Hallie Preskill and Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas lay out the theoretical foundation of AI and build a bridge between the theory and practice of applying AI to evaluation.

This book will appeal to a broad audience that includes evaluators, management and organization development consultants, program staff, and researchers in a variety of organizational and community settings. It is an ideal supplemental text for graduate courses that require students to practice evaluation.

Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas, M.P.P., is President of EnCompass LLC and brings 20 years of experience in evaluation, knowledge management, e-learning, and training. Ms. Catsambas is an innovator and practitioner in appreciative evaluation methods. Starting in 1998, she experimented with the use of appreciative inquiry in an evaluation of healthcare quality assurance activities in Chile. This became the first published work in appreciative evaluation in the Journal for International Health Care Quality, Volume 14, Supplement I, December 2002. She has continued to refine appreciative evaluation methods through her work with many clients in diverse settings including the World Bank, the United Nations, the Pubic Broadcasting Service, CARE International, the International Women's Media Foundation, and others. Ms. Catsambas brings her rich field experience to her training and has conducted annual training sessions at the American Evaluation Association Annual Conference since 2002. She has coauthored two chapters on appreciative evaluation methods (Preskill & Coghlan, New Directions for Evaluation #100, 2003). Her other clients include the U.S. Department of Labor, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, the U.S.Agency for International Development, Peace Corps, and the United Nations Foundation. She holds a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University.