Board of Directors
2023 Board of Directors & Leadership
The Washington Evaluators is managed by a Board of Directors as well as dozens of volunteers. Five voting Board positions are elected (unless filled by appointment due to vacancy). The Presidential cycle is three years, with the elected individual serving first as President-Elect, and then assuming the role of President, and then Past President. The Treasurer and Secretary positions are held for two years. Four other voting Board positions are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Board. The 2023 Board members, as well as other Washington Evaluators leaders and volunteers, are listed below.
BOARD MEMBERSNatalie DonahuePresident
Esther C. Nolton, PhDImmediate Past President 
Esther C. Nolton, PhD, MEd (she/her) is an established methodologist, strategist, and leader with over 15 years of experience in research and evaluation. After spending a decade as a sports medicine clinician and clinical researcher, Dr. Nolton began to focus more on the research and evaluation methods used to inform program and policy decisions. She received her PhD in Research & Evaluation Methods with a secondary specialization in Health & Education Policy from George Mason University. Her work continues to focus on evidence utilization, evaluation and data strategy and policies, survey methodology, and culturally responsive evaluation. Dr. Nolton is also an active leader in the evaluation community having served in multiple leadership and committee roles with the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and currently as the Immediate Past President for Washington Evaluators. Elizabeth BotkinTreasurer
Sana Ahmed WilderSecretary
Evan SeidnerProgram Chair
Kirsten WallaceMembership Chair
Nicole Germano
Communications Chair
Amy Kracker Selzer, PhDCommunity Engagement Chair
COORDINATORSNicole HalatPrograms Committee Member Nicole Halat is a Program Analyst at the Department of State, in the Bureau of Consular Gabrielle PlotkinPrograms Committee Member
Ben KlodaPrograms Committee Member Valerie Caracelli, PhDNew Professional and Student Coordinator
Dr. Valerie Caracelli is a Senior Social Science Analyst in the Center for Evaluation Methods and Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Valerie assists in conducting congressionally requested studies and consults with GAO Teams on evaluation design issues. She has published in leading evaluation journals and has served on a variety of editorial review boards. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 1979 and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 1988. Valerie has been active in the Washington Evaluators, one of AEA's first local affiliates, serving as board member and in other positions for over 20 years. She has been a member of the American Evaluation Association since its founding. On the AEA Board of Directors from 2007-2009, she served as liaison to the Ethics Committee and helped develop additional case study training materials on the Guiding Principles for Evaluators. She received the 2016 AEA Robert Ingle Service Award. Joanna ProutSocial Media Coordinator Joanna is a Psychologist and Program Evaluator at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She combines her clinical experience and research background to build systems for communicating data that make school- and community-based mental health supports usable and effective. Joanna's work emphasizes the importance of partnering with service providers and the people intended to benefit from services in defining impact. Kelly Feltault, PhDEvaluation Without Borders (EWB) Coordinator
Kelly ran her own consulting business many years and returned to consulting in 2019. She has evaluated cultural exchange programs, Bystander Intervention programs, anti-bias programs, English language learning programs, economic development programs, knowledge networks, and STEM education programs. She specializes in formative evaluation, gender and equity-focused evaluation, multi-sited evaluations, evaluation capacity building, data visualization, data management, qualitative research methods, survey design, self-efficacy metrics, and STEM equity. She is CITI certified in social science, was an NSEP and FLAS Fellow, and has worked in over twelve countries. Kelly is passionate about building the evaluation capacity of program professionals and transitioning organizations to be data-driven learning organizations. Jackie SinghEvaluation Without Borders (EWB) Coordinator Jessica KaliCareer Connections Coordinator Evan SeidnerScholarships Coordinator
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Natalie Donahue is currently the Chief of Evaluation in the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) where she directs the monitoring and evaluation of educational and exchange programming. She also serves as an adjunct at American University in the School of International Service. Previously, Natalie served as a Senior M&E 
Elizabeth Botkin is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In that capacity, she manages large-scale evaluation projects, oversees performance monitoring efforts, and conducts capacity-building for the Bureau and its partners. Throughout her career, she has worked on evaluation and monitoring projects with Department of State, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the Peace Corps and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has experience managing local data collection, training field staff, developing and implementing performance targets for projects, designing data collection instruments and analyzing data to present to key stakeholders and policy makers. She received her Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park and a B.A. in International Studies from Towson University.
Sana is a Lead Program Evaluator in the Office of Program Performance, Analysis, and Evaluation with the Small Business Administration, where she plans and manages evaluation of pandemic relief programs. Her professional interests include data visualization, design and evaluation planning within equitable frameworks. Previously, Sana lead and managed evaluation of education programs across K-12, higher education, museum, and research environments where her expertise included quantitative analysis, assessing community needs, capacity building. Sana holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment as well as Education Administration from Lynn University.
Evan is a recent graduate from American University with a Masters of Arts in International Relations. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Global Studies with minors in Political Science and East Asian Languages and Cultures. Before pursuing the MA, Evan spent time working in Tokyo, Japan in the grain industry as a Purchasing Analyst. Evan looks forward to entering the Evaluation field while serving as Program Co-Chair and Scholarships Co-Coordinator at WE.
Kirsten Wallace is a Management and Program Analyst in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. She 
Nicole Germano is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). In her current role, she manages program evaluations, implements the bureau’s performance monitoring framework, and has helped expand the team’s learning line of effort. An emerging evaluator, Nicole previously worked in digital marketing. She holds bachelors’ degrees in journalism and Spanish as well as a master’s degree in international development from Ohio University.
Affairs. She is also pursuing a PhD in International Education Policy at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on academic diplomacy and cultural ambassadorship. Nicole has a special interest in identity exploration, experience, and expression while studying abroad, as well as the relationship between identity and global connection-making/solidarity-building. Outside of work and school, she spends most of her waking hours wrangling her 6- and 2-year-olds, her 2 cats, her dog, and her partner. Nicole is relatively new to the Evaluation world, but is excited to learn and become engaged in the community!
Gabrielle has over 13 years of experience of conducting evaluations for the social sector both domestically and internationally. Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2021, she worked on the Evaluation and Learning team at Arabella Advisors LLC and the Performance Evaluation team at Social Impact, Inc. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Studies in Women and Gender from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science in Management from American University's School of International Service. Outside of work, Gabrielle is an avid salsa dancer, amateur astrologer, and aspiring sommelier.
Kelly holds a PhD in Applied Anthropology and International Development from American University and has over twenty years of experience as a Program Evaluator and Program Officer. Her professional experience includes work with the Peace Corps, Institute of International Education, and Director of University of Virginia’s NSF ADVANCE IT grant, and Director of Institutional Research and Analytics at the University of Lynchburg.
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