Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Greetings, AEA365! We are Nivedita Ranade and Nancy Vang, Program Director and Project Manager of the Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable (ACE) Evaluation Network with Expanding the Bench® (ETB). In this blog, we share the story and impact of our community-driven forums.
ETB envisions a culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) ecosystem, one rooted in collaboration, shared power, and centering the leadership of Indigenous, racially, and ethnically diverse evaluators in learning and transformation. Aligned with this vision, the ACE Evaluation Network is a national community of racially and ethnically diverse evaluators in the U.S. who are deeply committed to CREE principles and practices. ACE strengthens the evaluation field by advancing equity, expanding access, and fostering meaningful connections between evaluators and funders.
In response to this year’s shifting U.S. geopolitical climate, we sought to remain agile and attuned to the evolving needs of the ETB Community, positioning ourselves as a catalyst for timely, meaningful action. As we listened to members, creating and maintaining connections through safe spaces became a top priority, leading to the conceptualization of community forums as our primary programmatic offering for the year. Designed to be led by community members, the forums ensured that our conversations were grounded in lived experiences, responsive to real-time needs, and reflective of the collective wisdom within the ETB Community.
Our first three-part community forum series was led by ACE Network Member, Ryoko Yamaguchi, PhD, who introduced a thoughtful framework called B-SEEN. This framework focused on the intentional development of a supportive evaluation ecosystem. The approach recognizes that evaluators, funders, partners, and community members all play essential roles in shaping a future where evaluation can thrive, especially when grounded in equity, care, and a spirit of abundance. Ryoko was joined by fellow evaluators and funders who shared personal stories and strategies navigating these times. Their collective presence and insights, along with active participation from ACE Network Members, created a true sense of community which deepened connections, sparked dialogue, and reaffirmed our commitment to being catalysts for equitable transformation in the evaluation field.
We are deeply humbled and grateful for the overwhelmingly positive response to these community forums. Participants described the experience as engaging, insightful, and profoundly meaningful. Many highlighted the power of personal storytelling and the thoughtful exploration of positionality, shedding light on how our identities and lived experiences shape our approach to evaluation. What resonated most was the honesty, clarity, and radical truth-telling offered by the panelists, which created space for vulnerability, reflection, and growth. The supportive and energizing atmosphere fostered through small group discussions and open conversations allowed participants to connect more deeply with one another and with the ideas presented. The B-SEEN framework and the “Detect, Develop, Deploy ” model served as powerful entry points for these transformative dialogues.
To keep this momentum going, we must continue creating space for authentic connection and collective learning. The community forums are just the beginning.
Check out the B-SEEN Frameworks developed by Ryoko that you can use to reflect on your own values and positionality in the evaluation ecosystem and get involved with this work.
Your voice matters. Together, we can sustain this energy and build a more connected, equity-centered evaluation community.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Expanding The Bench® week. Expanding the Bench® is an initiative committed to diversifying evaluation and elevating culturally responsive and equitable evaluation. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from partners of Expanding The Bench®. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. 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.