CCPH is thrilled to announce Dr. Kunga Denzongpa, our Data and Evaluation Manager, selection as a Minority Serving Institution Fellow for the American Evaluation Association.
The overall purpose of the American Evaluation Association Minority Serving Institution Fellowship is to increase the participation of evaluators and academics from underrepresented groups in the evaluation profession and the American Evaluation Association. These fellowships are typically reserved for faculty at minority-serving institutions. Dr. Denzongpa’s interest in learning more about evaluation theory, methods, and the profession and her commitment to integrating new learning from initiative participation within CCPH enabled her to be selected as the only non-faculty fellow, making Dr. Denzongpa’s selection even more notable.
Why did you decide to apply for the fellowship?
I am a fairly early career researcher and evaluator, so I’m always looking for opportunities to grow my knowledge base and stay updated with the most appropriate frameworks for research and evaluation. The fellowship has a reputation for allowing professionals to expand their expertise and center their work most appropriately and responsive to the focus of the study.
Tell us about the work you’ll be doing.
There is a lot of exciting work I am looking forward to doing with the cohort. There are three main components of this fellowship: One of the most important projects I will be focusing on is developing a culturally responsive equitable evaluation plan for CCPH’s organizational programs that I could potentially standardize across all our projects. I will also be working with my cohort to develop a group evaluation project, which we will be presenting at the 2024 American Evaluation Association annual conference. The third aspect of this fellowship provides me with the opportunity to contribute to the association’s evaluation blog, which is peer-reviewed and considered credible scholarship.
How do you see yourself applying your learning to your work with CCPH and the field of community-engaged research?
There is a direct connection between the fellowship and my work with CCPH. In fact, one of the biggest driving factors for me to apply to this fellowship was to gain the knowledge and experience in evaluation to implement in my own work. Often, I see myself as a one-person evaluation team at CCPH, which requires me to dig into all the resources I can potentially find. This fellowship specifically centers culturally responsive equitable evaluation, which places communities at the core of the evaluation work. This is in direct alignment with CCPH’s core values. Therefore, I am very hopeful that everything I learn from this fellowship will be directly applied to my work with CCPH.
About the Fellowship
American Evaluation Association: Minority Serving Institution Fellowship
The overall purpose of the initiative is to increase the participation of evaluators and academics from underrepresented groups in the profession of evaluation and in the American Evaluation Association. The MSI Faculty Initiative identifies this group of potential and practicing evaluators by drawing from faculty at MSIs.
The program focuses on:
- Broadening their understanding of evaluation as a profession and
- Strengthening their knowledge of evaluation theory and methods through workshops, webinars, mentoring, and experiential projects.
The goals of the program are to help faculty at MSIs to:
- Enhance the evaluation activities and/or curriculum in their departments or universities
- Orient students to evaluation as a career/profession
- Disseminate information about evaluation and AEA to colleagues
- Expand their knowledge of evaluation; and
- Encourage collaborative writing projects that reflect cross-disciplinary ideals
Join us in congratulating Dr. Denzongpa by leaving a comment below.
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