Abma, Tineke A.

(b. 1964, Joure, Holland). Ph.D. Institute for Health Care Policy and Management, Erasmus University of Rotterdam; M.A. Health Care Administration, Erasmus University, Rotterdam; B.Sc. Nursing, Health Care Academy of Groningen.

Since 1990, Abma has worked at the Institute for Health Care Policy and Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and is affiliated with the Institute for Health Ethics, University of Maastricht. She has been involved in numerous evaluations, including responsive evaluations of palliative care programs for cancer patients, rehabilitation programs for psychiatric patients, quality of care improvement in coercion and constraint in psychiatry, and in jury prevention programs for students in the performing arts.

Her primary contribution to the field of evaluation is the exploration of how narrative and dialogue can create responsive evaluation approaches that strengthen stakeholders ' contribution to policy making in transformational healthcare programs. Social constructionist and postmodern thought, hermeneutics, and the ethics of care inform her evaluation practice. Primary influences on her evaluation work include Robert Stake, Egon Guba, Yvonna Lincoln, Thomas Schwandt, Jennifer Greene, Zygmunt Bauman, Rosi Braidotti, Kenneth Gergen, Sheila McNammee, Dian Hosking, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Guy Widdershoven, Joan Tronto, and Margret Walker.

Abma edited the books Telling Tales, On Evaluation and Narrative, Dialogue in Evaluation, a special issue of the journal Evaluation, and “Responsive Evaluation,” an issue of New Directions in Evaluation. Her dissertation was nominated for the Van Poelje Prize by the Dutch Association for Public Administration.