Scheirer, Mary Ann

(b. 1941, Akron, Ohio). Ph.D. Sociology, Cornell University; M.A. Sociology, State University of New York at Binghamton; M.A. Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh; B.A. Sociology and History, College of Wooster.

Scheirer is Senior Program Officer for Evaluation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her previous positions have included Independent Consultant; Adjunct Faculty Member, Department of Public Administration, George Washington University; Social Science Analyst, U.S. General Accounting Office; and Senior Study Director, Westat, Inc. Before entering the evaluation field, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. Scheirer is a sociologist and health services researcher with more than 20 years experience in applied social research, with an emphasis on evaluating health and human services intervention programs.

Her primary contributions to the field of evaluation have been to open the “black box” of programs being evaluated by developing tools to describe program components and to measure the extent and types of program implementation, particularly focusing on process assessment of community health programs. Her work has been influenced by Donald Campbell, especially his application of evolutionary theory from biology to evaluation: Generate program variations, try them out to see which ones work to fill a needed niche, multiply and disseminate successful adaptations.

Scheirer is the author of Program Implementation: The Organizational Context and Editor of two issues of New Directions for Evaluation, “A User's Guide to Program Templates” and “Guiding Principles for Evaluators” (coedited with William R. Shadish, Dianna Newman, and Chris Wye).

She is active in the American Evaluation Association, American Public Health Association, Washington Evaluators, and American Sociological Association, with numerous presentations at professional conferences. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Evaluation Association and was a member of the Task Force on Developing Ethical Principles for Evaluators. She has also served as President and currently serves as Treasurer of Washington Evaluators. She is the winner of the 1999 American Evaluation Association's President's Prize for best paper.