

Campion Hall Room 336D
Telephone: 617-552-8584
Email: emily.gates@bc.edu
Research on evaluation; systems thinking and approaches; values and evaluative criteria; equity in evaluation
Emily F. Gates is an evaluator, social scientist, and mixed methodologist. Her research focuses on the role of evaluation in addressing complex problems and changing systems. Driven by a democratic vision for evaluation, she advances evaluation theory, methods, and practice that use systems thinking and approaches, make values explicit, and center equity. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Evaluation, Evaluation and Program Planning, and Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice as well as handbooks of evaluation, systems thinking, and qualitative research.
As an evaluator, she has worked on a variety of mixed methods evaluations primarily in K-12 schooling, higher education, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and public health, particularly tobacco control and prevention. She currently leads evaluations of a K-12 principal leadership program, Lynch Leadership Academy, and NSF-funded Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship and consults on evaluations and trainings.
She teaches graduate courses in evaluation, mixed methods research, and theory of change and currently serves as co-chair of the Systems in Evaluation group within the American Evaluation Association. Prior to joining BC, Gates was an evaluation fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a former teacher.
Book Chapters