Patton, Michael Quinn

(b. 1945, Pewee Valley, Kentucky). Ph.D. Sociology, M.S. Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison; B.A. Anthropology and Sociology, University of Cincinnati.

Patton is a faculty member of the Union Institute and University Graduate College and a consultant on independent organizational development and evaluation. His reach is worldwide, both through his scholarly work and as a speaker and consultant. He was the keynote presenter for the launching of the African Evaluation Society in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1999 and at the European Evaluation Society in 2000. He has twice keynoted American Evaluation Association and Canadian Evaluation Society conferences, as well as international evaluation conferences for the United Kingdom Evaluation Society, the Australasian Evaluation Society, the Japan Evaluation Society, and the World Bank's professional development seminars.

Patton is best known for his utilization-focused evaluation model, which emphasizes intended uses of evaluation by intended users. This work, as well as his work on qualitative methods for research and evaluation, makes him a seminal thinker in contemporary evaluation.

His work on the utilization-focused model was heavily influenced by his time in the Peace Corps. From 1967 to 1969, Patton worked in Burkina Faso on community and agricultural development projects. His challenge was to figure out what rural villagers there wanted and needed, an experience that contributed to the development of evaluation methods and models that focus on users' needs and interests. Patton also prizes the mentorship of Vito Perrone in the areas of pragmatism, qualitative ways of knowing, and humanism.

Patton has demonstrated his commitment to the profession of evaluation as President of the American Evaluation Association in 1988 and through his many workshops. He has conducted a workshop on utilization-focused evaluation at every American professional evaluation conference, beginning with ENet in St. Louis in 1975 and every AEA conference since AEA was founded, with the exception of the earthquake conference in San Francisco in 1989.

He is the author of five books on program evaluation, including Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text, a book that has been used in more than 300 universities. His other books are Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, and How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation (part of the Program Evaluation Kit). He was Editor of a New Directions in Evaluation issue on culture and evaluation, and his nonfiction book Grand Canyon Celebration: A Father-Son Journey of Discovery was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in 1999.

Patton has received many awards for his work in evaluation, sociology, and teaching. He is the only recipient of both the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award, from the Evaluation Research Society, for “outstanding contributions to evaluation use and practice” and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award, for lifetime contributions to evaluation theory, from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology honored him with the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology. He received the 1979 Morse-Amoco Award from the University of Minnesota for Outstanding Teaching for his innovative course on evaluation.