The Educational Research Methodology (ERM) Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), in partnership with its Graduate Student Association, hosted the first annual student-led Emergent Voices in Evaluation Conference (EViE) this past Friday, March 31st, 2017. This one-day conference was inspired by the Edward F. Kelly Evaluation Conference that has taken place in central Canada and upstate New York over the past twenty five years.

The 2017 theme, Broadening Voices in Evaluation, focused on diversity and the novice evaluator’s dialogue, research, and practice. The goal of EViE is to facilitate dialogue among students and faculty, as student presenters showcase original evaluation research, engage with a wide range of evaluation content, and network with others in the region. The overarching vision for this conference is to create a professional space that fosters the development of a dynamic and inclusive community of student evaluators in the southeastern United States.

The inaugural EViE conference hosted 40 attendees, with  17 presentations from graduate students enrolled in universities in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Dr. Jennifer Greene, Professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gave the keynote, An evaluation prism: Role, Values, and Theory. The graduate student planning committee members were Jeremy Acree, Adeyemo Adetogun, Austin Cavanaugh, Justin Long, Emma Sunnassee, and Julianne Zemaitis with Cherie Avent and Robyn Thomas Pitts as the conference planning co-chairs. Drs. Jill Anne Chouinard and Ayesha Boyce are the ERM faculty advisors involved in the conference.