O'sullivan, Rita

(b. 1948, Brooklyn, New York). Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction, Auburn University; M.A. Educational Administration, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis [Page 287]Obispo; A.B. Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

O'Sullivan is Associate Professor, Assessment and Evaluation, in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Her primary contributions to the field of evaluation have been the development of collaborative evaluation theory and techniques that enhance evaluation capacity and utilization among educators and public service providers. She has successfully used collaborative evaluation approaches with education, health, community development, and family support programs in North Carolina; nonprofit organizations in the southeastern United States; and national program initiatives in education and community development. Recently, O'Sullivan traveled to Siberia to conduct evaluation training for 160 staff from the emerging nonprofit sector in the newly independent states of the former USSR and Durban, South Africa. While there, she coled a workshop for 60 cooperative extension staff from six different countries. Working collaboratively with program people as they use evaluation findings to improve the quality of their services has been a sustaining influence.

In addition to her contributions to the field of evaluation via articles and presentations, O'Sullivan authored Evaluation Practice: A Collaborative Approach and served as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Evaluation Association from 1992 to 1997. Currently she cochairs the Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment Evaluation TIG. In 2001, she was presented with the first lifetime Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Association for Research in Education, and in 2002, she received the Outstanding Research Paper Award from the same association, as well as the Robert Ingle Service Award from the American Evaluation Association.