Whitmore, Elizabeth

(b. 1939, Newton, Massachusetts). Ph.D, Cornell University; M.S.W., B.A., Boston University.

There have been two main influences in Whitmore's life as an evaluator. One has been her background in social work, both as a practitioner and as an educator. This has pushed her to continually focus on connecting practice and theory and to deepen her understanding of the effects of contextual factors on people's daily lives. It has helped her take the larger (social, political, cultural, economic) context into account when conducting evaluations. Her social work training has also reinforced the practical aspects of theory, the “So what does all this mean in terms of practice?” aspect.

The primary influence for Whitmore was her introduction to participatory action research, which she encountered in the early 1980s when ...