Kirkhart, Karen

(b. 1948, Pomona, California). Ph.D., M.S.W. Social Work, University of Michigan; B.A. Psychology, Pomona College.

Kirkhart's earliest mentor in evaluation was Marcia Guttentag, to whom she dedicated her dissertation in posthumous tribute. However, it is unquestionably Michael Scriven who has had the greatest influence on her work, through his focus on values, the power of unintended outcomes, metaevaluation, and the Key Evaluation Checklist. Kirkhart's commitment to evaluation centers on the potential for social change, and this drew her to theorists and practitioners who focused on roles and contexts of evaluation: Ernest House (justice and fairness), Lee J. Cronbach (the policy-shaping context of evaluation influence), Samuel Messick (social consequences of our understandings and actions), Michael Q. Patton (the personal factor in evaluation), Anna-Marie Madison and Stafford Hood (inclusion of racial and ethnic diversity), and Jennifer Greene (power, privilege, and the participatory process). Kirkhart also credits her conversations and debates with Will Shadish for pushing her work toward greater precision and clarity. Like Donald Schön, Kirkhart views evaluation as a combination of technical rationality and professional artistry, and from the artistic perspective she cites as influences John Baldessari, for never taking one's expertise too seriously, and Ed Ruscha, for humor and an unyielding California sensibility.

Kirkhart has taught, practiced, and written about evaluation for more than two decades, with an emphasis on local-level evaluation of educational and human service programs. Her publications have made significant original contributions to evaluation theory in two areas: multicultural validity and evaluation influence. In the first area, she examines the relationship between evaluation and social justice, framed within the broader context of validity. Her writings on the topic of multicultural validity draw on classic validity theory, postmodern perspectives, and standpoint epistemologies to examine the many ways in which culture bounds understanding in general and judgments of program merit and worth in particular. In the second area, her theoretical work places evaluation use in the broader context of power, influence, and consequences, interweaving ethics and validity. Her Integrated Theory of Influence advances the study of evaluation by providing a unifying framework for examining evaluation impact and clarifying conversations on use.

She has served on the governing boards of ENet (1977–1978, 1980–1982; President, 1981), the Evaluation Research Society (1983–1985), and the American Evaluation Association (1986, 1993–1995; President, 1994). Within the American Evaluation Association, she has served on the Diversity Committee (1998–2003), Nominations and Elections Committee (1988–1990; Chair, 1988–1989), Advisory Committee, the Initiative for Building Diversity Among the Evaluation Community (2000–2003), Task Force on Guiding Principles for Evaluators Working Across Cultures (2001–2003), and multiple TIGs (Chair, TIG on Evaluation Use, 2003–2005). Within the American Psychological Association, Kirkhart served as President of Division 18 (1990–1991) and chaired its Section on Evaluation (1986–1988). She has served on numerous editorial advisory boards and received award recognition for both teaching and service.

She married fellow evaluator Nick L. Smith in 1984. Their son, Dylan, grew up attending annual AEA meetings, leading him to a career interest in building hotels.