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Board

of the DeGEval - Evaluation Society

In accordance with the objectives of DeGEval - Evaluation Society, the board elected by the General Assembly has an integrative function and represents the society externally.

The members of the board are (from left to right):

Prof. Dr. Manfred Rolfes, Dr. Sonja Kind, Dr. Jan Tobias Polak, Prof. Dr. Udo Kelle (Chairman of the Board), Prof. Dr. Philipp Pohlenz, Dr. Angela Wroblewski (Deputy Chairwoman of the Board). Not in the picture: Susanne von Jan, M.A.

 


Udo Kelle

Chairman of the Board

Prof. Dr.

After several positions at various universities in Germany and abroad, Udo Kelle has been teaching methods of empirical social research and statistics at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg since 2010. He also conducts methodological research and method development for basic, applied and evaluation research in the social sciences. He is particularly interested in the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods with the aim of improving the quality and validity of data, methods and research results. He has published extensively on this topic (including several comprehensive monographs, edited volumes and more than 100 articles).

Udo Kelle has been intensively involved in evaluation for many years and has been involved in evaluation projects in the fields of nursing and health care research, higher education research, teaching research, youth welfare and vocational training. He pays particular attention to the quality and significance of different types of data and the question of how causal statements and generalization claims can be empirically substantiated in evaluation research. He is a long-standing member of DeGEval - Evaluation Society and helped to set up the methods working group there, where he was spokesperson from 2009 to 2015.

Udo Kelle has been Chairman of the Board of DeGEval - Evaluation Society since 2021.

kelle@degeval.org

Angela Wroblewski

Deputy Chairwoman of the Board

Dr.in rer. soc. oec.
Senior Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna

Angela Wroblewski studied sociology at the University of Vienna while working as a bank employee. From 1996 to 1998 she completed a postgraduate degree at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) Vienna and a Master's degree in Social Science Data Analysis at the University of Essex (UK).

Since the late 1990s, she has been involved in evaluations of measures to promote women and gender equality in the areas of the labor market, education and science. Over the last 15 years, she has mainly been involved in gender equality policy in science and research. She is currently coordinating the EU-funded project TARGET - Taking a Reflexive Approach to Gender Equality for Institutional Transformation (2017 - 2021). As part of the project, seven research institutions and research funding organizations from Mediterranean countries are being supported in the development, implementation and monitoring of gender equality plans. She is also involved in the EU-funded GENDERACTION project, where she is responsible for monitoring the implementation of national action plans for gender equality in science and research.

Angela Wroblewski has been active in DeGEval since 2005. She is a founding member of the Gender Mainstreaming working group and was one of its spokespersons until 2019. Among other things, she has worked on the gender competence profiles for evaluators. She was active on the program committee for the annual conferences from 2015 to 2019. Angela Wroblewski is also a member of the EES - European Evaluation Society and represents the IHS in fteval - the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Evaluation.

Angela Wroblewski has been a board member of DeGEval since 2019 and its deputy chairwoman since 2021.

wroblewski@degeval.org

Sonja Kind

Dipl.-Biol., Dr. rer. pol.

VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH
Evaluation
Systemic coach and organizational consultant

Sonja Kind studied biology with a focus on molecular biology at the University of Cologne and completed her diploma thesis in 1999. She then completed her doctorate in economics and social sciences within the interdisciplinary and entrepreneurship-oriented scholarship program EXIST-HighTEPP at the University of Bamberg. From 2004 to 2005, she worked as a consultant in a strategy consultancy.

Ms. Kind has been an employee at VDI/VDE-IT since 2005 and has already worked in various areas of the company. One of her main areas of work is the evaluation of research, technology and innovation programs. Since 2010, she has been the spokesperson for evaluation at the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) within VDI/VDE-IT. Ms. Kind has carried out numerous program and project evaluations for public clients, in particular for federal and state ministries. The thematic spectrum ranges from cluster policy, ICT and electromobility to support for start-ups and SMEs.

For some years now, innovation and technology analysis has been another focus of her work. Since February 2014, Ms. Kind has been working on a horizon scanning project for the TAB - Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag, which she took over in 2016.

From 2015 to 2017, Ms Kind completed training as a systemic coach and organizational consultant at the artop Institute at Humboldt University in Berlin and works part-time as a coach and organizational consultant.

Ms. Kind has been involved in DeGEval since 2006 and was the spokesperson for the "Evaluation in Business" working group until 2018. She was involved in the development of the "Evaluation in Business" guidelines and was responsible for auditing the association's accounts from 2012 to 2013.

She has been a member of the DeGEval Board since 2019.

kind@degeval.org

Philipp Pohlenz

Prof. Dr. rer. pol.

Professor of Higher Education Research and Professionalization of Academic Teaching at the Faculty of Human Sciences at Otto von Guericke University

Philipp Pohlenz has been Professor of Higher Education Research and Professionalization of Academic Teaching at the Faculty of Human Sciences at Otto von Guericke University since January 2014.

He studied sociology at the Universities of Hamburg and Potsdam and graduated in 2000 with a degree in sociology. He then took over the management of the Service Center for Teaching Evaluation and the Center for Quality Development in Studies and Teaching at the University of Potsdam as a research assistant.

In 2007, he completed his doctorate at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Potsdam with a dissertation on "Data quality as a key issue of quality assurance in teaching and studies". Since 2003, Pohlenz has also been working as a consultant for development projects in the field of higher education system development in various countries in South East Asia and Africa.

The focus of his work is on student research (student success, drop-out), the further training of lecturers in higher education didactics and the organizational-theoretical analysis of universities and higher education systems. In academic teaching and academic continuing education, he focuses on events that apply empirical social research methods in various evaluation research contexts.

Philipp Pohlenz has been a member of DeGEval since 2004. From 2011 to 2022, he was a member of the team of speakers of the AK Hochschulen. He also organized the DeGEval annual conferences in 2012 (Potsdam) and 2023 (Magdeburg).

pohlenz@degeval.org

Jan Tobias Polak

Dr. rer. soz. oec.

Senior Evaluator at the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval)

Tobias Polak is a social scientist and economist and received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 2012. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for the former German Development Service (DED) in Mali and his subsequent dissertation focused on local governance networks and the application of empirical methods in non-European contexts.

From 2012, he worked for the German Development Evaluation Institute DEval in Bonn. He was involved in the planning and implementation of strategic evaluations, focusing on the methodological quality of evaluations in the field of development policy.

He then took over the management of the Evaluation & Statistics Unit at the Austrian Development Agency in Vienna. In this role, he was responsible for conducting strategic evaluations for the Foreign Ministry and implementing the official statistics on development financing (Official Development Assistance, ODA).

He has been a senior evaluator and team leader at DEval since June 2019 and is currently in charge of the sector evaluation "Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights".

Tobias Polak has been active in DeGEval since 2013. From 2015 to 2022, he was spokesperson for the evaluation methods working group. In this role, he dealt with the question of the methodological quality of evaluations in different policy fields and with the exchange across policy field boundaries, among other things.

polak@degeval.org

Manfred Rolfes

Prof. Dr. phil.

Professor of Applied Human Geography and Regional Sciences at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Potsdam

Manfred Rolfes studied Geography, German Studies and Educational Science at the University of Osnabrück from 1982 to 1988. From 1989 to 2003, he worked as a research assistant at the Department of Geography at the University of Osnabrück and at the Scientific Center for Vocational and Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel (today: International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel - INCHER). Since 2003 he has been Professor of Applied Human Geography and Regional Sciences at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Potsdam and since 2012 lecturer in the Master's program "Criminology and Police Science" at the Ruhr University Bochum.

His research focuses on applied urban research; (in)security, risks and space; everyday tourism in the Global South and evaluation research. Manfred Rolfes came to evaluation research via the (self-)evaluation of study programs. Since 2000, he has been involved in the evaluation of urban and regional development processes, developed a guideline for the evaluation of national urban development programs in an interdisciplinary team and conducts participatory qualitative evaluations of prevention concepts (in the fields of crime prevention and dealing with right-wing extremism/right-wing populism). His view of evaluations, assessments and project or program effects is characterized by a system(theoretical) understanding that explicitly takes into account the multi-perspectivity and context dependency in this field of action.

In 2001, Manfred Rolfes became a member of the DeGeval - Evaluation Scoeity (DeGEval e. V.) and has been involved in the working group on urban and regional development since 2002. He has been one of the working group's spokespersons since 2010.

Manfred Rolfes has been a board member of DeGEval - Evaluation Society since 2019.

rolfes@degeval.org

Susanne von Jan

Magistra Artium

Independent evaluator, founder of smep-consult (Salzburg, Austria)

Susanne von Jan studied communication science (major), ethnology and work and organizational psychology (minor subjects) with a focus on empirical social research and graduated in 2008 with a Magister Artium.

Her first position as a research assistant at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich brought her into direct contact with the field of evaluation, as she was responsible for applied impact research and evaluation in various EU-funded projects.
Various experiences abroad led to an increased interest in the field of development cooperation, in which Susanne von Jan then worked, always in the context of monitoring and evaluation. She held various professional positions, including at VENRO (Association of German Development and Humanitarian Aid NGOs), CEval (Centre for Evaluation) and then as deputy head of the evaluation department at the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich.

At the end of 2019, Susanne von Jan moved to Salzburg and set up smep-consult as an independent evaluator and consultant. Her work focuses on impact-oriented project planning, advice on setting up monitoring systems and conducting external (impact) evaluations. She also conducts training courses on these topics. Her thematic focus is on development cooperation, although other areas such as development education, international cooperation and regional development are also part of her thematic spectrum.

Susanne von Jan has been actively involved in DeGEval since 2014 and was one of the spokespersons for the Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid working group from that time until September 2022. From 2016 to 2018, she was a member of the programme committee for the organization of the DeGEval annual conference programme. She has been involved in various DeGEval working groups, in the last two years mainly in the preparation of the guidelines on remote evaluation and on quality criteria for monitoring, and was also active in the ad hoc group "Memberships of DeGEval".

Ms. von Jan has been a member of the DeGEval Board since 2022.


Former members of the Board

To date, the following people have served on the DeGEval Board (in the order in which they left)

  • Stefan Schmidt, graduate social worker; Master of Organizational Psychology, freelance evaluator: schmidt evaluation (Cologne) (as board member from 2017-2023).
  • Dr. Jutta Wolff, Dipl.-Psych., Institute for Educational Monitoring and Quality Development (as Board member from 2021-2022).
  • Prof. Dr. Jan-Ulrich Hense, Professor of University Didactics and Evaluation at the Institute of Psychology and Sports Science at Justus Liebig University in Giessen (as a member of the Board from 2015-2021 and as Chair of the Board from 2017-2021).
  • Dr. Marianne Lück-Filsinger, Head of the research group "Educational, Evaluation and Social Studies" (ForBES) at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Saarland University of Applied Sciences (HTW Saar) (as a member of the Board from 2017-2021 and as Deputy Chair of the Board from 2019-2021).
  • Dr. Christiane Kerlen, independent evaluator and managing director of Kerlen Evaluation in Edinburgh (as board member from 2011-2015 and as deputy chair of the board from 2015-2019)
  • Dr. Sonja Sheikh, Managing Director of Austrian Cooperative Research Vienna (Board member from 2012-2019).
  • Prof. Dr. Philipp Mayring, Professor of Applied Psychology and Methodological Research at the Institute of Psychology at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (as Chairman of the Board from 2015-2017).
  • Dr. Oliver Schwab, Managing Director at the Institut für Stadtforschung Strukturpolitik GmbH (IfS), Berlin (as a member of the Board from 2013-2017).
  • Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Böttcher, Professor of Educational Science with a focus on quality development and evaluation in educational and social institutions at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (as a member of the Board from 2009-2011 and as Chairman of the Board from 2011-2015).
  • Peter Maats, KfW Entwicklungsbank (as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board from 2011-2015).
  • Dipl.-Ing., Dr.-Ing. Thomas Weith, Head of the research focus "Land Management, Regional Strategies and Evidence" at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research Müncheberg (ZALF) e.V. (as a member of the Board from 2009-2013).
  • Dr. Karin Haubrich, DJI - Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., Munich (as a board member from 2007-2011).
  • Dr. Uwe Schmidt, Head of the Centre for Quality Assurance and Development (ZQ) at the University of Mainz (as a member of the Board from 2003-2005 and as Deputy Chairman of the Board from 2005-2011).
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Christiane Spiel, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna (as Chairwoman of the Board from 2003-2011).
  • Dr. Hans-Peter Lorenzen, MinDirig a. D. in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour, Bonn/Berlin (as a member of the Board from 2005-2009).
  • Dr. Dirk Scheffler, Partner of e-fect hoffmann + scheffler gbr, Trier (as a member of the Management Board from 2005-2009).
  • Prof. (FH) Dr. Alexandra Caspari, University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt am Main, formerly Head of Development Cooperation at the Center for Evaluation (CEval), Saarland University (as Board member 2003-2007).
  • Günter Tissen, Managing Director of Wirtschaftliche Vereinigung Zucker & Verein der Zuckerindustrie, Bonn (initiator of the foundation, Chairman of the Founding Board 1997-1999, then Deputy Chairman until 2005).
  • Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Beywl, scientific director and founder of Univation (Cologne); head of the professorship for education management and school and personnel development at the University of Teacher Education Northwestern Switzerland; program management member of the master's program "Evaluation" at the University of Berne (deputy chairman of the founding board from 1997-1999, then board member until 2005).
  • Dr. Alois Basler, formerly of the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL), Braunschweig (Board member from 2001-2003).
  • Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Daniel, University of Zurich, formerly Center for Higher Education Research, Kassel.
  • Prof. Dr. Hildegard Müller-Kohlenberg, University of Osnabrück (as a member of the Board from 1999-2003).
  • Prof. Dr. Stefan Kuhlmann, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, ISI Karlsruhe (as a board member from 1997-2001).


DeGEval would like to express its sincere thanks for their contribution.