Donna Podems

Founder and Director of OtherWISE consulting, based in South Africa, Dr. Donna Podems has worked for more than 23 years with a range of clients, including governments, civil society, nongovernmental groups, international donors, and foundations in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Dr. Podems is proficient in conducting implementation, outcome, and impact evaluations. She is also well versed in developing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks with and for projects in agriculture, gender, women’s empowerment, HIV/AIDS, TB, health systems, youth interventions, education, capacity building, human rights, law and housing, environment, trade and investment, and community needs. She is an experienced facilitator and trainer, both in strategic planning and M&E. Dr. Podems is a past Board Member for American Evaluation Association (AEA) and South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association, past Chair for the AEA International Working Group, and AEA’s current representative to International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation. She is the author of Being an Evaluator: Your Guide to Evaluation, and the editor of Democratic Evaluation: Exploring the Reality, among many other journal articles and papers. In addition to teaching for the EnCompass Learning Center, Dr. Podems is a research fellow at the University of Johannesburg and an Associate Professor at Michigan State University. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary studies focused on program evaluation and organizational development, and a Master’s degree in public administration from The Union Institute and University.