Sebastian Lemire, Ph.D.

Dr. Sebastian Lemire is an evaluation expert with decades of experience designing and managing evaluations of education and workforce development programs. He has extensive experience with a broad range of evaluation approaches, quasi- and non-experimental designs, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, as well as systematic evidence reviews.

Lemire currently serves as Practice Guide Director for two practice guides on K-5 behavioral interventions under the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). He has conducted study reviews and provided technical assistance to evidence reviews for the Prevention Services Clearinghouse, the Investing in Innovation (i3) National Evaluation, the ASPE Effectiveness Factors project, the Career Pathways Evidence Review, the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research, and the WWC. Lemire recently co-authored two WWC practice guides on Designing and Delivering Career Pathways at Community Colleges and Effective Advising in Postsecondary Education.

Sebastian is an award-winning author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a broad range of methodological topics, including alternative approaches for impact evaluation, systematic evidence reviews, and development and use of theories of change for program design and evaluation. As an award-winning speaker, Sebastian has delivered over 75 conference presentations, invited talks, and keynotes for a wide range of audiences. He currently serves on the editorial advisory board of Evaluation and as a board member of the American Evaluation Association. 

Expertise

• Impact evaluation
• Theories of change
• Evidence reviews
• What Works Clearinghouse practice guides
• Evaluation capacity building

Key Projects

• What Works Clearinghouse—Preschool to Postsecondary Evidence Synthesis Task Order (WWC-PESTO), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education
• Study Design and Evaluation of Federal Technical Assistance: Regional Educational Laboratories and Comprehensive Centers, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education
• Meta-evaluation, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Investing in Innovation (i3) National Evaluation, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education
• What Works Clearinghouse—Postsecondary Preparation, and Evidence Reporting (WWC-PEPPER), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education

Publications

• Lemire, S., Peck, L., & Porowski, A. (2023). The evolution of systematic evidence reviews: Past and future developments and their implications for policy analysis. Politics & Policy, 51(3).
• Bourgeois, I., Lemire, S., Fierro, L., Castleman, A., & Cho, M. (2023). Laying a solid foundation for the next generation of evaluation capacity building: findings from an integrative review. American Journal of Evaluation.
• Nielsen, S. B., Lemire, S., Bourgeois, I., & Fiero, L. (2023). Mapping the evaluation capacity building landscape: A bibliometric analysis of scholarly communities and themes. Evaluation and Program Planning, 99(2).
• Lemire, S., Peck, L. R., & Porowski, A. (2020). The growth of the evaluation tree in the policy analysis forest: Recent developments in evaluation. Policy Studies Journal, 48(S1), S47-S70.
• Lemire, S., Kwako, A. J., Nielsen, S. B., Christie, C. A., Donaldson, S., & Leeuw, F. (2020). What is this thing called a mechanism? Findings from a review of published realist evaluations. New Directions for Evaluation, 167, 73-86.