2026 Board of Directors & Leadership

BOARD MEMBERS

President

Matt has 20 years of experience in the fields of monitoring, evaluation, learning and program management across the public sector--at the local and federal levels--as well as in the non-profit and international sectors. Currently, he is a Senior Consultant at Guidehouse LLC where he is supporting the US Department of State to improve its monitoring and evaluation practices.  Previously, Matt worked in evaluation at the United Nations in Colombia, at the Mayor's Office in New York City, and with NGOs in the Philippines, El Salvador, and Haiti, among other places.  He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer having served in Paraguay from 1995-2000.  He holds a Bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and a Master's in Public Administration from the Wagner School at NYU.

Elizabeth Botkin

Treasurer

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.

Tristi Nichols

Secretary

Independent Evaluator through her consulting business, Manitou, Inc. Her professional career encompasses impactful roles with the United Nations, UNICEF, various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the United States Government. With a doctorate from Cornell University, Dr. Nichols has successfully designed, managed, and implemented monitoring and evaluation projects across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Caucasus, and the South Pacific. A longstanding member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) since 1994, she served on the AEA Board of Directors from 2010 to 2012 and contributed to AEA’s Slate Committee for three years.

Quisha Brown

Quisha Brown is the Executive Director of Humanistic Care LLC, an organization dedicated to humanism - the idea that individuals have the capacity, autonomy, and potential to shape positive outcomes in their own lives with the help and support of other humans. Quisha is also the creator of the Progressive Outcomes Scale Logic Model (POSLM) and the author of "Scaling Social Impact with Artificial Intelligence & Stage Based Metrics". 

With over 20 years of serving marginalized communities in education, housing, workforce development, and mental health, she is celebrated for her creative approaches and commitment to inclusive evaluation practices.

As Program Chair, Quisha aims to bring her expertise in evaluation, social outcomes, and fiscal responsibility to Washington Evaluators programming. Her focus is on advancing the evaluation field with tools and strategies that promote accountability and measurable social impact.

Nicole Germano

Communications Chair

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.