Reflection: Thanks Tom Grayson

So since I started a stroll down memory lane, I thought I'd share this too. In 2002 I decided I wanted to be an evaluator. I was working at an evaluation company, and I decided to start my own consultancy, so I was getting great practical exposure.  But I really did not have a good academic grounding in the theory and literature surrounding Evaluation. This was back in the day when there weren't MOOCS and webinars... so I had to READ to get my education.

During my studies I had read Cook and Campbell, and somehow I also stumbled upon Guba and Lincoln. I was introduced to Utilization Focused Evaluation.  In 2004 I got Rossi, Lipsey and Freeman for a going away present from Khulisa, and I read any evaluation journal articles I could lay my hands on.

Its after reading something that Tom Grayson (from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) wrote in a journal article about teaching evaluation, that I decided to email him. I asked him for some reading material that will give me a good basis in Evaluation. He responded by sending me a package of course reading materials via post... This was such an unexpected gesture of goodwill. Above is a little handwritten note that he sent with the material.
 
So Tom, thanks a lot. And this is me letting you know about my adventures in evaluation!