Thomas A. Schwandt, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has written extensively about evaluation theory and practice. Dr. Schwandt is a recipient of the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award from the American Evaluation Association for his contributions to evaluation theory. He is editor emeritus of the American Journal of Evaluation; serves on the editorial board of Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice; and is a member of the Evaluation Advisory Panel of the Independent Evaluation Office of the United Nations Development Program.

Emily F. Gates, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. A recipient of the AEA Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award from the American Evaluation Association, Dr. Gates has extensive experience conducting mixed methods evaluations of programs, primarily in K-12 and higher education; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; and public health. Her research examines the intersecting areas of systems thinking and approaches, values and valuing, and equity in evaluation theory and practice. She was an evaluation fellow in the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.