Leslie Goodyear, EDC distinguished scholar, is an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and evaluation capacity building. She specializes in evaluating out-of-school and informal STEM education programs. She has deep expertise in building communities of practice, qualitative inquiry, and the ethics of evaluation.

A past president of the American Evaluation Association, Goodyear leads evaluations for federal, state, and private clients; facilitates evaluation capacity building; and serves as an evaluation adviser for colleagues. Her recent evaluations include Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy, the Illinois 21st Century Community Learning Center Program, the National Academies Societal Experts Action Network, and an evaluation capacity-building initiative for the National Science Foundation (NSF) AGEP program.

Before joining EDC, Goodyear was a commissioner of evaluations at NSF. She has served as the Ethics Section editor and associate editor of the American Journal of Evaluation and has been chair of AEA’s Ethics Committee. She is co-editor of Qualitative Inquiry in Evaluation.

Goodyear holds a PhD and an MS in Program Evaluation and Planning from Cornell University and a BA in Developmental Psychology from Macalester College.