Beverly Parsons
Executive Director
Beverly Parsons is President and Executive Director of InSites, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization. InSites works through inquiry-based evaluation, planning, and research to support learning, growth, and change in formal and informal social systems. InSites pays particular attention to how social systems attend to environmental sustainability, social justice, economic well-being, and community development. Beverly served as president of the American Evaluation Association in 2014. She is a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation (University of Colorado) and a B.S. in Medical Technology (University of Wisconsin). She has certificates in Sustainable Business, Human Systems Dynamics, and Appreciative Inquiry facilitation. While at InSites, Beverly has worked with initiatives in education, health, social services, and environmental fields. She has been a consultant to several foundations, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy. She has served as a consultant to foundations in Brazil and the South African Department of Education; conducted evaluations in China and Japan; and assisted teams in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in program evaluation and redesign of curriculum. She has been the principal investigator for two National Science Foundation grants. She specializes in evaluation designs for multi-site, multi-level, large-scale initiatives and using systems thinking and systems theories in research and evaluation. She has written and presented extensively on these topics. She has a strong background in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Prior to InSites, Beverly was at the Education Commission of the States, a national interstate compact that assists governors, legislators, and state education and business leaders to improve education through leadership and policy. Previously she was at Education Northwest (Portland, OR) as Director of the Assessment and Measurement Program; worked on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; held university adjunct teaching positions; and was a physiological chemistry laboratory instructor (University of Wisconsin medical school). Beverly lives with her husband in Hansville, WA and enjoys hiking and organic gardening.