Evaluation Leaders Series: A Conversation with Michael Quinn Patton
Dr. Michael Quinn Patton directs an organizational development and evaluation consulting business, Utilization-Focused Evaluation. He has been an independent evaluation practitioner for more than 35 years, and has worked at local, state, national, and international levels.
He is the author of six books on program evaluation, including his latest: Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (fourth edition, 2015). Other books include Essentials of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (2012), Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use (2010), and the fourth edition of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (2008). Dr. Patton has also written a book with two Canadian colleagues entitled Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed (2006) that applies systems thinking and complexity theory to social innovation.
Dr. Patton is a former president of the American Evaluation Association. He received the Alva and Gunner Myrdal Award from the Evaluation Research Society for “outstanding contributions to evaluation use and practice,” and the Paul Lazarsfeld Award for lifetime contributions to evaluation theory from the American Evaluation Association. He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years, including 5 years as the director of Minnesota Center for Social Research. Dr. Patton received the University’s Morse-Amoco Award for outstanding teaching. He also teaches annually in the International Program for Development Evaluation Training in Ottawa.
Dr. Patton is a generalist, having evaluated a wide variety of programs in areas as diverse as health, human services, education, cooperative extension, environment, agriculture, employment, training, leadership development, literacy, early childhood and parent education, poverty alleviation, economic development, and advocacy. He has consulted with nonprofit, philanthropic, private-sector, and international organizations. His consulting practice has included program evaluation, strategic planning, conflict resolution, board facilitation, staff development, futuring, and a variety of organizational development approaches.
