Cooksy, Leslie

(b. 1958, Eureka, California). Ph.D. Program Evaluation and Public Policy, Human Service Studies, M.S. Rural Sociology, Cornell University; B.S. Applied Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis.

Cooksy is Director of the Center for Community Research and Service and Associate Professor, University of Delaware. Previously, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Florida State University; Senior Social Science Analyst for the U.S. General Accounting Office's Program Evaluation and Methodology Division in Washington, DC; and served for 2 years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Sierra Leone as an Agricultural Work-shop Instructor.

She brings a “multilingual” perspective to her work, which incorporates both qualitative and quantitative approaches and a wide variety of disciplines. Her evaluation work extends across public and mental health services, family and youth programs, welfare benefits, and international agricultural programs. Influences on her work include Jennifer Greene, William M. K. Trochim, Joe Wholey, and Eleanor Chelimsky. Her work has added to the growing literature about program theory, logic models, and metaevaluation.

She has served as a member of AEA's Board of Directors, during which time she chaired the publications committee. She was also Program Chair of AEA's topical interest group (TIG) on the Teaching of Evaluation. She is currently Associate Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation and a member of the Editorial Boards of New Directions for Evaluation and Evaluation & the Health Professions. She received the 2001 Certificate of Appreciation from the University of Delaware Graduates of the Master of Arts Program in Urban Affairs and Public Policy for commitment and excellence in teaching and putting the needs of students first. She is the 1993 recipient of the American Evaluation Association's Marcia Guttentag Award for promising young evaluators and the 1994 recipient for the U.S. General Accounting Office's Meritorious Service Award.