Michael Harnar

Background

About Michael Harnar

Expert evaluation methodologist – I am a seasoned and recognized evaluation generalist with 20+ years of experience designing and implementing evaluations, across a range of domains, as a sole practitioner, a team member, and as a team leader. Change facilitator – I developed and launched an innovative online Master’s degree in social impact, facilitated the creation of a unique cross-modal new and emerging technology evaluation framework for US Department of Transportation, launched a national organization and continue to serve as inaugural board member, collaboratively developed and implemented policies and procedures for an online open access journal, and in the wake of my supervisor’s death and in a resource-constrained atmosphere, I facilitated the administrative transfer of a PhD program from one university college to another. I have also designed and implemented information management system to help a variety of projects track and understand change. Communicator – As the leader of a PhD program in evaluation, I regularly discuss evaluation and the discipline at the intellectual crossroads of multiple disciplines. I have presented research at more than 20 international conferences and taught evaluation at the graduate level for almost 6 years. As a television producer, I produced a weekly Navy news show for 5 years, for which I interviewed admirals, generals, soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, and a sitting US president; outside the Navy I worked for 10 years with a variety of television industry leaders, including 4 years as a freelance cameraman in New York City. Project manager – I manage the publication of an internationally-recognized open access peer-reviewed journal and published an issue just over a year after being thrust into the role of executive editor. This includes managing a board of 7–10 volunteers, engaging a copyeditor, developing a journal style guide, escorting more than 50 manuscripts through peer review at any given time, and writing policies and procedures that were previously unwritten. Concurrently, I am developing three special issues with first-time issue editors dispersed around the globe. Program administrator – I currently administer an interdisciplinary PhD program in evaluation that awards doctorates in evaluation and is sponsored by the deans of four colleges at the university. This involves regular, intensely intellectual discussions at the intersection of knowledge development, discipline boundaries, and budgetary constraints at the highest levels of the university.