Job: Program Evaluator

The NorthTide Group is seeking a Program Evaluator to perform services at the Army Public Health Center.

The Army Public Health Center (APHC) mission is to promote health and prevent disease, injury, and disability of Soldiers and military retirees, their Families, and Department of the Army civilian employees; and assure effective execution of full spectrum veterinary service for Army and Department of Defense Veterinary missions. Within the APHC Health Promotion and Wellness Directorate, the Public Health Assessment Program supports evidence based health promotion practice within the Army public health system through advocacy, assessment, and evaluation. The Public Health Assessment Program is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of scientists, advanced public health practitioners, and program evaluators. For more information on the Public Health Assessment Program, please visit https://phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/healthsurv/phape/Pages/default.aspx

LOCATION: Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD

HOURS: M-F 8 hours/day, not to exceed 5 days/40 hours per week, excluding Federal Holidays.

The Public Health Assessment Program is in need of program evaluators, duties and responsibilities of which include:

 Execution of Public Health Assessment Program Mission via Evaluation.

• Work within a team to coordinate, plan and execute assessments and program evaluation activities related to public health issues in the Army. These include, but are not limited to: public health infrastructure and systems development, health promotion education programs, the built environment, health promotion policy, and/or chronic disease prevention and wellness initiatives.
• Develop, write, and execute a range of supervised program evaluation plans to include needs assessments and developmental, process, and outcome evaluations using multidisciplinary skills and both quantitative and qualitative methodology.
• Document findings from evaluations in a variety of formats (for example, technical reports, information papers, infographics, white papers, scientific manuscripts, presentations) and to a variety of audiences (to include military senior leaders, scientific, and lay audiences).
• Provide program evaluation expertise in support of other team members, teams, programs, APHC directorates, and external stakeholders.
• Develop internal and external tools, strategies, and policies to facilitate evidence based public health practice in the Army.

Supporting the whole Army Family.

• Support the development of evidence based and evidence informed outreach and educational programs in the U.S. Army.
• Use program evaluation to identify obstacles to public health readiness in the Army and recommend evidence based preventive actions to address these obstacles.
• Build programs’ capacity for and advance knowledge of program evaluation methods and strategies among Army stakeholders.
• Effectively and respectfully engage and communicate with stakeholders throughout all projects.
• Additional project/program participation as directed by mentor.
• Travel within U.S. and abroad as required (generally 5-10% annually, more or less as mission demands) 

Education requirement

• Master or doctoral degree obtained in a relevant field (public health; psychology; measurement and evaluation; sociology) with at least 15 hours of coursework in research methods, program evaluation, epidemiology, qualitative methods, and/or statistics.

REQUIRED knowledge, skills, and abilities are as follows:

 Program Evaluation Competencies

• Familiarity with foundations of program evaluation (as found in, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, the Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation’s program evaluation standards, the American Evaluation Association’s Guiding Principles for Evaluators)
• Knowledge of evaluation designs (e.g., non-experimental, quasi-experimental, experimental).
• Ability to engage with, listen to, and learn from a broad range of stakeholders, encouraging their meaningful participation.
• Ability to educate program staff and partners about evaluation concepts and methods.
• Ability to organize and summarize information clearly and concisely.
• Ability to identify limitations of one’s evaluation expertise and devise methods for acquiring additional evaluation knowledge and skills when necessary.
• Conducting advanced exercise testing and prescription using a variety of testing technologies (e.g. air displacement plethysmography, direct gas exchange VO2, indirect calorimetry).
• Identifying and recommending correction actions of testing validity and repeatability for advanced exercise assessments and protocols.
• Applying new solutions to problems with existing guidelines or exercise testing techniques to ensure compliance with all published standard operating procedures.

Data Gathering, Management, and Assimilation

• Ability to collect data using qualitative and/or quantitative approaches such as interviews, group processes, participant observation, surveys, electronic data files, or other methods.
• Ability to create data collection tools (e.g., surveys, focus group guides, tracking sheets).
• Knowledge of appropriate data analysis methods including the ability to conduct analyses using proper analytic tools for quantitative (e.g., SAS, SPSS, R, Minitab) and/or qualitative (e.g., Nvivo, Atlas.ti, MaxQDA) data.
• Experience with synthesizing information generated through an evaluation or applied research study to produce findings that are clearly linked to the data collected.

 Organizational Understanding and Flexibility

• Ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team to plan and conduct evaluations.
• Ability to work with stakeholders to present analyses, find common themes, and identify relevant and actionable findings from evaluations.
• Commitment to ensuring evaluation activities are conducted in a culturally competent and ethical manner.
• Ability to clearly communicate assessment and evaluation findings orally and in writing to a diverse group of stakeholders with different backgrounds.

PREFERRED knowledge, skills, and abilities include:

 Program Evaluation Competencies

• • 3 or more years with direct (non-coursework) program evaluation or applied research experience, including, but not limited to, developing logic models for complex programs, creating evaluation plans, and managing evaluation projects.
  • Knowledge of the distinctions between evaluation and research.
  • Ability to understand the context of a program and how it affects program planning, implementation, outcomes, and the evaluation.
  • Experience with evaluations using mixed method approaches.
  • Skill in developing and articulating evaluation-focused program goals and objectives and ability to use objectives to generate, revise, and prioritize evaluation questions.
  • Ability to develop criteria and standards indicative of program success reflective of the values held by key evaluation stakeholders and facilitates use of findings by primary evaluation stakeholders.
  • Ability to translate evaluation findings into public health action.

Data Gathering, Management, and Assimilation

• Ability to identify and assess existing data sources for their use in program evaluation.
• Ability to manage databases, construct data files, conduct and manage data entry, create codebooks, and perform data edits/cleaning.
• Ability to train others in data collection methods and techniques.
• Skill to assess data collection tools for evidence of reliability and validity.
• Knowledge of methods for protecting confidential data.

Organizational Understanding and Flexibility

• Knowledge of Army or military culture, traditions, and organization.
• Experience with meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, and negotiation to engage stakeholders in an evaluation process based on shared priorities.
• Skill in working with stakeholders to develop feasible recommendations.
• Ability to facilitate consensus building and remain mission focused in groups of diverse stakeholders with divergent opinions of evaluation priorities.
• Ability to prepare and present evaluation results in a manner that increases the likelihood that they will be used and accepted by a diverse group of stakeholders.
• Ability to develop action plans and systems to facilitate and track implementation of evaluation findings and recommendations.

The NorthTide Group, LLC offers a comprehensive benefits package that offers:

• Competitive pay
• Medical and Dental Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Short and Long Term Disability
• 401k Plan with company match
• Paid Time Off
• Training and Certification Reimbursement
• Tuition Reimbursement

Visit our website at www.northtidegroup.com  for company information. The NorthTide Group, LLC is an EOE/M/F/VET/Disability