Leslie Goodyear, an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and EDC distinguished scholar, is a past president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). She has deep expertise in qualitative inquiry, evaluation ethics, evaluation storytelling and other methods of sharing findings, evaluating out-of-school and informal STEM education programs, and building communities of practice.

Goodyear brings decades of experience as a lead evaluator and principal investigator. She leads evaluations for federal, state, and private clients; facilitates evaluation capacity building; and serves as an evaluation adviser for colleagues. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications.

Previously, as a National Science Foundation (NSF) program officer, Goodyear helped build organizational evaluation capacity and was a commissioner of evaluations. She has served as the Ethics Section editor and associate editor of the American Journal of Evaluation and has been an AEA board member and chair of its Ethics Committee. She is co-editor of Qualitative Inquiry in Evaluation.

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