About TEI

The Evaluators' Institute (TEI) is an internationally recognized and respected provider of high quality instruction, which is delivered through a balanced curriculum that emphasizes practical relevance for practicing evaluators. TEI, the first entity of its kind in the world, was founded by Dr. M. F. "Midge" Smith. Dr. Smith's vision was to bring together the most highly regarded experts in the field to identify the most useful evaluation content areas, who would then provide instruction and learning activities that enhance the role of, the practice of, and the impact of evaluation. TEI continues Dr. Smith's vision in its new home at George Washington University.

TEI Director

Dr. Ann Doucette is Research Professor of Evaluation and Health Policy at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, a lecturer in the Department of Health Policy, and Director of The Evaluators’ Institute. She has worked with federal and state organizations, universities, community groups, public schools, commercial health plans, the United Nations – International Fund for Agricultural Development, and foundations regarding evaluation management and design, analytic modeling, assessment, testing and measurement in the areas of health and behavioral health care, school reform (urban and minority education), social systems and social policy. Her expertise includes the development of performance and outcome measurement systems that target accountability, quality monitoring and outcomes across multiple intervention/program levels. Her approach includes a specialized emphasis on measurement, which she considers fundamentally critical in performance monitoring, evaluation practice, outcome and impact assessment. Work in these areas most often emanates from a complex adaptive systems perspective. She serves on several technical advisory panels. Among these are: the American Psychological Association Presidential Taskforces on Outcome Measurement and Pay-for-Performance and Outcome, The Joint Commission; Hospital-based Psychiatric Services (HBIPS) measures; National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA); AMA’s Physician’s Consortium for Performance Improvement.

Founding TEI Director

Dr. M. F. “Midge” Smith is an experienced evaluator with a notable record of publications; she has administrative experience at several levels within a university setting and thirteen years successfully directing The Evaluators’ Institute (TEI). She knows evaluation as a learner, as a teacher of academic and non-formal courses, and as a practitioner in many subjects (e.g. agriculture, education, and medical/health).

In 1996, Dr. Smith initiated the first TEI program, with a packed audience on the Johns Hopkins University campus in Baltimore. In 2004, Dr. Smith, with help of key advisors, defined a curriculum to establish the first Certificate Program for Professional Evaluators available entirely through off-campus intensive short courses. And, in 2005, she started discussions with TEI faculty, other evaluation leaders, and three institutions of higher education about the optimum environment and set up within which TEI could flourish and where program evaluation could reach a height of development and influence to effect positive change in the way public and non-profit programs are understood and implemented …the Center for Evaluation Effectiveness at GW is the result of those discussions.

TEI Staff

Executive Coordinator: Mrs. Alexandra Fernandez Jefferson
Assistant to the Executive Coordinator: Michelle Jones
Research: Toby C. Martin, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist

TEI Advisory Committee

M. F. "Midge" Smith, Ph.D.
Mark Lipsey, Ph.D.
Mel Mark, Ph.D.
Michael Patton, Ph.D.
James Bell, M.A.