Dr. Michelle (Shelly) Sloper is an Assistant Professor of Evaluation Practice for the Claremont Evaluation Center and Co-Director of YDEval, working remotely from a small town in Alaska.

Shelly received her PhD in Positive Developmental Psychology and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University in 2016. Her academic journey at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) was shaped by an appreciation of the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective and the Applied Development Science (ADS) movement. During her graduate school career, she conducted multiple applied research studies exploring the critical influences and mechanisms for promoting positive youth development.

Since starting her evaluation work in 2009, Shelly has extensive experience conducting and managing evaluations across diverse contexts (e.g., college readiness, civic engagement, character education, social-emotional development, educational curricula, hunger relief, youth sports, technical assistance and capacity building), however Shelly possesses a particular expertise for evaluations of after school programs and outside of school time (OST) programs serving elementary to high school youth populations.

Shelly strives to make evaluation useful for her clients and responsive to their needs. Building collaborative relationships with youth-serving organizations is the first step in changing attitudes toward evaluation and promoting the value of evaluation as a rigorous tool for collecting data to inform decision-making and continuous quality improvement, as opposed to strictly accountability.

Read more about Shelly’s work here (http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni-howl/sloper/).

When Shelly is not at her desk, she enjoys being outside enjoying the majesty of small town Alaska (Haines, Alaska: population 1,700), paddle boarding with friends, reading fiction novels, listening to non-fiction and wellness podcasts, spending time with her family (especially her four incredible nieces), and acting as a School Board Member for the Haines Borough School District.