Sarah Mason
Director Center for Research Evaluation and Instructional Assistant Professor of Higher Education
I am the Director of the Center for Research Evaluation. I work with mission-driven organizations to maximize the impact of their work, embed systems for data-driven decision making, and support continuous learning and improvement.
Research Interests
- Evaluation of research impact
- Evaluation of STEM education and STEM career pipeline programs
- Evaluation of integrative health and wellbeing programs
- Evaluation of international education
- Evaluation capacity building
Biography
I am an evaluator whose primary goal is to enhance the quality of social programs through: (1) innovative research and evaluation practice, (2) high quality training for evaluators, (3) public advocacy in support of evaluation and (4) the development of practical tools that allow practitioners to improve decision making. I currently serve as Director of the Center for Research Evaluation, an independent evaluation center housed at the University of Mississippi. In that role I have directed more than 45 research and evaluation projects on issues related to K-12 education, STEM education, public health, international education, and higher education. I have directed evaluations for projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes for Health, the US Department of Education and various non-profit and philanthropic organizations including the Kellogg Foundation, the Merck Foundation and the Bloomberg Foundation. I have previously taught Masters-level classes in Quantitative Methods for Evaluation and Mixed Methods Research and Evaluation. My research interests lie in contextually-responsive, real-world evaluation designs, survey methodology, educational evaluation and evaluation influence. I have published in the American Journal of Evaluation and Evaluation and Program Planning. I currently serve as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Evaluation Association’s flagship journal, New Directions for Evaluation. Prior to my work in academia, I spent nearly 10 years working in Australia, the United States and the Asia Pacific: • Leading and participating in research, monitoring and evaluation teams • Designing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and systems • Designing large-scale, multi-year performance monitoring systems and evaluation projects • Providing training and technical assistance in monitoring and evaluation. Country experience includes: Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, East Timor, Jordan, Myanmar (Burma), Portugal, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States.
Education
Ph.D. Psychology, Claremont Graduate School (2018)