Katrina L. Bledsoe, Ph.D.

Katrina L. Bledsoe, Ph.D., is a trained evaluator, mixed methodologist, and social psychologist with evaluation experience in both U.S. and international settings. Dr. Bledsoe’s evaluation work has focused on community-based social services, health and education evaluation and programming, mixed methodology and methods, theory-driven evaluation, culturally responsive and equity-focused approaches, and topics in applied social psychology.  

In her 25-year career, Dr. Bledsoe has served as principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or project director on a variety of projects, and has received grants and contracts for programs in mental and physical health, the arts, economic sustainability, education, and international development.  She has served as a consultant to federal, state, and local government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and to schools, universities, foundations, and community-based organizations.

At Abt Global, she is responsible for developing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategies that center on culturally responsive research and evaluation approaches, theory-driven evaluation, and organizational learning. As the Principal Global EDI she will serve as a thought leader on EDI both within and outside the organization, as it pertains to research and evaluation.

Dr. Bledsoe currently serves as the Executive Board Chairperson for Efficacy Methodology Research Institute, Uganda, East Africa.  She is a member of the American Evaluation Association, the Washington Evaluators, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Dr. Bledsoe joined Abt from Boston-based Education Development Center, where she was a senior evaluator and research scientist.   During this time, she was also a partner with Strategic Learning Partners for Innovation. She served as principal investigator of the Overview of the IMLS Museums for America Empowered about Inclusive Evaluation Practices for the Museum of Science in Boston and as co-PI on the Complexly English Language Learners Project. She was also co-PI on the COVID-Inspired Data Science Education through Epidemiology project, as well as co-PI on an Annie E. Casey Foundation-funded project focusing on culturally responsive and equity-focused evaluation approaches.

Dr. Bledsoe’s work has been published in journals such as the American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions in Evaluation, Families in Society, and in edited volumes such Qualitative Inquiry in the Practice of Evaluation, Continuing the Journey to Reposition Culture and Cultural Context in Evaluation Theory and Practice, and the International Handbook of Urban Education.

Expertise

• Community-based social service
• Health and education evaluation and programming
• Mixed methodology and methods
• Applied social psychology
• Evaluation in arts and culture
• Culturally responsive and equity-focused/centered research and evaluation approaches

Key Projects

• Nellie Mae Education Fund Racial Equity in Student Centered Learning
• Review of the Victorian African Communities Action Plan, Victoria, Australia.
• Young Males of Color Coalition Project, California State University
• Boston Museum of Science Culturally Responsive Evaluation Coaching Project
• NSF INCLUDES Broadening Participation Initiative
• Perinatal Equity Initiative for San Bernardino County
• Evaluation of the Human Institutional Capacity Development Program, U.S. Agency for International Development

Select Publications

• Bledsoe, K. L. (forthcoming, 2022). The reckoning: Confronting the biases in evaluation and transforming the field. In Disrupting Program Evaluation and Mixed Methods Research for a More Just Society: The Contributions of Jennifer C. Greene. A. Boyce, J. Hall, & R. Hopson (Eds.). Information Age Publishing.
• Bledsoe, K. L. (forthcoming 2022). Evaluation’s Identity: Who Are We, Why Are We Here, and What Does Our Future Look Like? New Zealand Journal of Evaluation.
• Caldwell, L., & Bledsoe, K. L. (2019). Can social justice live in a house of structural racism? A question for the field of evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation, 40, 6-18.
• Bledsoe, K. L. (2018). Race and evaluation (Ed.). American Journal of Evaluation,39, 511-513.
• Bledsoe, K. L., & Donaldson, S. I., (2015). Culturally responsive theory-driven evaluation. In S. Hood, R. Hopson, & H. Frierson (Eds.), Continuing the journey to reposition culture and cultural context in evaluation theory and practice (pp. 3–28). Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age.