Date: Monday, September 28, 2026
Authors Dr. Dana Smiles (left) and Dr. Angelicque Tucker Blackmon (right)
Hello! We’re Dr. Dana Smiles and Dr. Angelicque Tucker Blackmon, evaluators and researchers who are passionate about designing creative evaluation experiences that are both rigorous and deeply human.
Resistance has been on our minds lately.
Not the kind that comes from avoiding accountability. The quieter kind. The resistance that appears when an organization hears the word evaluation and a subtle sense of unease settles in.
Evaluators…we treat that resistance as a barrier to overcome. We simplify the language. We improve the surveys. We attempt to explain the process more clearly. We quietly proclaim… ‘Please do not resist…I am here to help’.
But what if that resistance is actually information?
Many organizations don’t choose evaluation because they’re curious about it. They choose it because it is required, which leaves very little room to acknowledge the emotional experience of being evaluated.
There is a subtle vulnerability in asking people to explain themselves, justify their work, translate deeply held values into measurable outcomes, and share stories that often belong to entire communities. Even with the best intentions, evaluators can unintentionally become the embodiment of something organizations never truly chose–vulnerability; because on the surface, vulnerability feels like choosing risk, like betting on trust before trust has even been earned.
Perhaps this is one reason the evaluation process so often feels heavy before it even begins.
What if evaluation didn’t start with a logic model or an interview guide?
What if it started by recognizing our shared humanity through creative practice?
As people, we evaluate every day. We constantly assess whether something is working, whether a relationship feels safe, whether a decision aligns with our values, whether we’re moving toward the future we hope to build for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
We’re also inherently creative.
These two deeply human capabilities, evaluating and creating, are rarely invited into conversation with one another.
Art changes that.
Creative methods, like movement, dance, spoken word, and song, have a remarkable ability to lower our defenses. They create space where conversations feel less performative and more honest. They invite curiosity, reflection, and imagination into a process that often feels technical, intimidating, or even emotionally charged.
The goal isn’t simply to make evaluation easier to understand. It’s to make evaluation feel more human. Because accessibility isn’t only about technical knowledge.
It’s emotional.
When people feel safe enough to define success on their own terms, something shifts. Evaluation becomes less about satisfying external requirements and more about building the capacity to understand one’s own work. Organizations begin identifying the outcomes that genuinely matter to them. They develop greater agency in conversations with funders, strengthen their programs, and become more confident telling their own stories of impact.
Ultimately, evaluation should exist to serve people.
The stories, experiences, and vulnerabilities entrusted to evaluators are not simply data. They are reflections of people working to strengthen communities and improve lives.
If our work is truly in service of humanity, then our methods should embody that commitment from the very beginning. Perhaps the future of evaluation isn’t simply better methods.
Perhaps it’s about creating the conditions where people feel safe enough to insist that the evaluation process includes the variables of interest they believe matter most, the ones they see as essential to their human flourishing.
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