Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.
Hello! I’m David Fetterman, Ph.D., a past president of the American Evaluation Association, founder of Empowerment Evaluation, and co-chair of its Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment Evaluation Topical Interest Group. Joining me is Paul St. Roseman, Ed.D., founder of Data Use Consulting Group, previously Chief Research and Information Officer at Reach University, and a former Stanford University student of mine.
Together, we serve as critical friends, facilitating sessions that focus on evaluative thinking and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into existing evaluation systems. The focus of this contribution is on how we are helping The Just Trust validate data and integrate AI into their evaluative processes, as well as providing the training necessary to prepare their team for this transition into the world of AI-driven evaluation work.
The Just Trust is a $350 million Chan Zuckerberg-funded intermediary initiative focused on reforming the criminal justice system. Their Chief of Staff and cross-functional teams are currently conducting a gestalt empowerment evaluation. By immersing themselves in data collection, analysis, and reporting, they are organically taking charge of their self-evaluation as issues surface and the organization pivots to meet its goals.
We are assisting The Just Trust in ensuring that their grantee interviews accurately reflect what transpired during original conversations after the data is deposited into and transformed by an AI platform called Rural Senses. This step is at the heart of much of AI and evaluation work: ensuring the integrity and quality of raw qualitative data as it transitions into an AI-processed digital format prepared for sorting, pattern recognition, and generative AI manipulation.
Successful validation and integration require proper training. To prepare The Just Trust staff to validate their data and maximize the utility of Rural Senses for monitoring and evaluating progress, we have developed in-depth online training. This includes:
We invite our colleagues to share their own efforts in validating AI-related data, integrating AI into evaluations, and providing training to enhance both their own AI evaluation capacity and the capacity of the communities and organizations they work with daily.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please do so using the form on our website. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.