About the Evaluator
Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH, Principal of TERSHA LLC, is first and foremost grounded in her cultural identity as a Ghanaian-American and embraces her intersectional facets of being a wife and mom in her work. She is an author of a children’s book, designer, poet, award-winning consultant, and an inaugural member of the Global South Arts and Health Envoy. Dr. Attipoe-Dorcoo is a member of the Advancing Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation Network and a 2022 Public Voices fellow of AcademyHealth in partnership with TheOpEdProject. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Texas Women’s University with two decades of experience engaging in several projects focused on co-designing culturally responsive and equitable tools for research and evaluation initiatives with communities. As a speaker and facilitator, Dr. Attipoe-Dorcoo has also presented at conferences, published articles and book chapters, chairs and serves as an advisor for many entities, and facilitated several trainings. She is a polyglot, visionary, strategist, builder, leader, and weaver who disrupts dominant narratives by encouraging thought leadership that centers the margins and embraces authentic purpose-driven being.
Evaluation Background
I specialize in...
- Qualitative methods
- Quantitative methods
- Mixed methods
- Culturally responsive evaluation
- Developmental evaluation
- Empowerment evaluation
- Participatory evaluation approaches
- Theory-driven evaluation
- Utilization-focused evaluation
Training and Certifications
- Graduate coursework in evaluation
- Professional development workshops, webinars, or online courses on evaluation
Outside of Work, I enjoy...
… writing and dreaming are my favorite hobbies because they allow space for me to birth words that move out of me into existence and bring forth unimaginable power. That is how I have found myself using the power of storytelling to shift the culture of centering dominant narratives of people and seeking to invite in experiences instead.
A Successful Evaluation...
… in my opinion has the following ingredients:
- Relationship Building
The evaluator(s), commissioners, and direct beneficiaries of the evaluation findings should have touchpoints that are human-centric, and allow space for co-development. - Applying Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE) Principles
I co-developed a framework that embodies the principles of CREE, which are rooted in systems thinking, equity, indigenous ways of knowing, and collective power. The I.M.P.A.C.T. (Inclusive, Manumit, Practice-based, Accessible, Community-focused and Timely) framework serves as a guide for to:
1) foster a community-first approach to goal setting in systems change
2) complement data-driven, measurement-oriented methodologies used in assessments and
3) heighten the value of practice-based, culturally relevant, and experiential learning to a comparable level of worth and merit given to social research.
My Working Style...
… is strategically tied to the following values:
- Embrace the power of storytelling to shift the culture of centering dominant narratives of people and seeking to invite lived experiences instead.
- Believe in spreading narratives globally that equity by design is needed to counteract systemically designed oppressive structures that based the existence of humanity on skin color.
- Advocate through speaking and writing opportunities on shifting to indigenous ways of being and designing systems that are human-centered.
- Encourage processes that call for people’s experiences and the choices of structurally under-resourced people to be the center and baseline for decision-making in lieu of dominant narratives.
EvaluATE is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 2332143. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.