One of the newest and hardest working members of the Washington Evaluators, Giovanni Dazzo joined WE just two years ago and hit the ground running by volunteering as Program Committee Chair in January 2016.
Giovanni works as an evaluation specialist with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), Office of Global Programming. At DRL, Giovanni performs a plethora of tasks, such as advising DRL staff and grantees on evaluation fundamentals and methods, conducting internal studies and managing external evaluations, developing portfolio-level frameworks, and managing the office’s new grants database. Over the last few years, Giovanni has been focusing on the concept of reciprocity in evaluation design, exploring ways in which evaluators can form ethical research relationships with participants by communicating as equals. Through this process, he has been incorporating human rights and advocacy principles into his evaluation work as a way to make the concepts more accessible to the activists he works with directly.
Giovanni completed his undergraduate studies in anthropology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and holds a master’s degree in public management from SDA Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. After spending five years abroad conducting evaluations for international aid agencies, he came to settle in the DC Area. A part of his settling included joining WE as a way to meet evaluation professionals and learn about the type of work being done by others in the area. As Program Committee Chair, Giovanni is looking forward to planning events and initiatives that appeal to diverse sectors of the evaluation community, and working with the Membership Committee to expand WE's presence. He encourages members and nonmembers alike to participate in professional development and social events—“they’re a great way to learn about new methods in the field, and meet evaluation experts, many of whom live in the DC area.”
A native Californian who still struggles with DC winters, Giovanni enjoys playing the ukulele, attempting to garden, wandering around the community market and local businesses in his neighborhood, and traveling with his wife.
