Gail Barrington

Gail Barrington established Barrington Research Group, Inc. in 1985 and shepherded it from a sole proprietorship to an incorporated company with a number of employees and associates. She has conducted or managed over 100 evaluation studies, many of a complex nature. She has been a Certified Management Consultant since 1988. In 1994 she was nominated for the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She has a Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Alberta, (1981), an MA in English Literature from Carleton University (1971) and a BA in English Literature from McGill University (1967). She is a certified teacher and an adult educator and, in addition to managing her firm, instructs in the Master of Health Studies program at Athabasca University. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Board of Directors, former Chair of the AEA Ethics Committee, and is one of the founding directors of the Canadian Evaluation Society Educational Fund. She has been a long-time member of the AEA TIG on Independent Consulting and has offered her popular workshop on consulting skills for evaluators at AEA conferences for the past ten years. She has published a number of articles in evaluation journals and prepared several entries for the Evaluation Encyclopedia, (edited by Sandra Matheson, Sage Publications, 2004) which also included a brief biography of her career. She is currently leading an editorial team that is preparing an issue of New Directions in Program Evaluation on Independent Consulting.

Kaireen Chaytor

Kaireen Chaytor, PhD comes from a background in adult and continuing education. She has taught program evaluation in the Master in Public Administration (Management) Program, Dalhousie University, in the Non-Profit Sector Leadership Program offered by Henson College and as in-service for all levels of government. Dr. Chaytor has conducted evaluations, large and small, for both provincially and federally funded projects. She has been active in the Nova Scotia Chapter and the National Council of the Canadian Evaluation Society. In 2003 she received the national award for contribution to theory and practice of evaluation in Canada. Kaireen’s interests are in advancing educational opportunities in evaluation and building evaluation capacity in agencies and government departments.

Joan Kruger

Joan Kruger became interested in Program Evaluation and the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) in 1991 when pursing graduate work at the University of Regina. She joined the Saskatchewan Chapter of CES in 1992 and became President in 1993. In 1998, she became the Saskatchewan representative on National Council, CES; and from 1999 to 2002, she was Chair of the Administration Committee. She is also a member of the American Evaluation Association from 1995 to present.

In 2001, a group of active CES members began to revamp the Canadian Evaluation Society Scholarship Fund, initially proposed by CES in 1989. With massive legislative changes and thus a complete rewriting of the bylaws, the group formed the Canadian Evaluation Society Educational Fund in 2001. She became Chair, Board of Directors, CESEF in 2002 to present.

Currently, Joan works within the federal government in the areas of Program Development and Evaluation. She also consults in related areas. She developed and evaluated programs internationally. She has been a Sessional in the Faculty of Adult Education and Human Resource Development, University of Regina from 1996 to present.

Michael Obrecht
Founding Board Member

Michael Obrecht has worked in federal government program evaluation since 1982, initially with the Medical Research Council and then with its successor organization, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. His principal interest is improving the fairness, effectiveness and efficiency of systems for evaluating applications for research grants and scholarships. Michael has been a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) since 1987. He has served on the Board of Directors for the National Capital Chapter and on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. He has published articles and book reviews and has presented his work at international evaluation conferences.

Michael’s involvement in evaluation education began in 1996 when he founded the annual CES Student Evaluation Case Competition. In the Case Competition, teams of university students analyze an evaluation scenario and present their recommendations to a panel of judges. The exercise provides an intense learning experience. The students’ analyses and reports must be completed in a five-hour period, so preparation, teamwork and critical thinking are essential. As a member of the Board, Michael is contributing to the development and promotion of the organization’s portfolio of educational support programs.

Robert Lahey

Robert Lahey has over thirty years of experience in evaluation and performance measurement, having managed evaluations in a variety of public sector settings and leading corporate evaluation units in five of Canada’s federal departments and agencies.

Robert was the founding head of the Treasury Board of Canada’s Centre of Excellence for Evaluation, the federal government’s policy centre for evaluation, where, from 2001 to 2003, he was responsible for overseeing the rebuilding and repositioning of the evaluation function across the federal public service.

Since launching his own firm (REL Solutions Inc.) in 2004, Robert has served as an advisor to a number of Canadian government departments and agencies, NGOs, as well as international organizations, including the World Bank and United Nations Development Program, in support of building monitoring and evaluation capacity.

In 1995, he was recognized by the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) for “contribution to the ongoing development of excellence in the field of Evaluation”, as a member of the team that developed and delivered the original ‘Essential Skills Series of Workshops’ in the National Capital Chapter. In 2004, he received the CES Annual Award for ‘Contribution to Evaluation in Canada’, in recognition of “the significant contribution to the theory and practice of evaluation in Canada”.

A frequent contributor to professional associations and national and international learning events, Robert has taught monitoring and evaluation methods to graduate level students (University of Ottawa) and led workshops to a variety of audiences, both nationally and internationally.

Bob Segsworth
Founding Board Member

Bob Segsworth is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Laurentian University and Director of the Centre for Local Government there. He has served as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation and as a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society’s (CES) Council. He is a member of INTEVAL, an international evaluation research group. Bob is also the founding Chair of the CES Fellowship. He has been a member of CESEF since its creation.