Title
Professor of Educational Foundations and Research
Department
Educational Foundations and Research
Office Location
Fowler Hall (FH)
404b
TTY: 202 651 5545
Voice Phone: 202 651 5545
FAX: 202 651 5710
Email Address
Donna.mertens@gallaudet.edu
- Ph.D., University of Kentucky, Educational Psychology, 1977
- M.S., University of Kentucky, Educational Psychology, 1973
- B.A., Thomas More College, Psychology, 1972
Donna M. Mertens is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Research. She teaches research methods and program evaluation to deaf and hearing students at the graduate level. She received the Distinguished Faculty Award from Gallaudet University in 2007.
As a past President (1998) and member of the American Evaluation Association's Board, Dr. Mertens provided leadership in the development of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation and the establishment of the AEA Diversity Internship Program in conjunction with Duquesne University. AEA awarded her their highest honor for service to the organization and the field of evaluation for her contributions in international and diversity initiatives.
She is the sole author of Transformative Research and Evaluation (in press, Guilford Publications), Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods (2nd ed., Sage, 2005), lead author with John McLaughlin of Research and Evaluation in Special Education (Corwin Press, 2004), and second author of Parents and their Deaf Children: The Early Years, (coauthored with Kathryn Meadow Orlans, & Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, Gallaudet University Press, 2003). She is also the lead editor for the forthcoming Handbook of Social Research Ethics (Sage, co-editor Pauline Ginsberg), second co-editor of Research and Inequality (with Carole Truman and Beth Humphries, Taylor and Francis, 2000). She is also widely published in journals such as the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, American Journal of Evaluation, American Annals of the Deaf, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
Dr. Mertens conducts and consults on evaluations, as well as leads professional development activities on research and evaluation in many national and international settings. Examples include teaming with the leadership of the United Nations UNIFEM initiative to address the Millennium Goals for women in Africa in South Africa; evaluating the cultural exchange program for deaf students between Costa Rica and Gallaudet; providing professional development on transformative mixed methods inquiry strategies in diverse communities at the Fitzwilliam College of Health Sciences, Cambridge University; consulting with the breast cancer screening project for indigenous peoples in Newfoundland, Canada and on early intervention programs for deaf infants and children in Israel for Jewish and Bedouin families; and evaluation of professional development for Egyptian educators in deafness, blindness, and mental retardation.
CONGRATULATIONS DR. MERTENS!
The Department of Education Foundation and Research would like to congratulate Dr. Mertens on receiving the prestigious PAUL F LAZARSFELD THEORY AWARD from the American Evaluation Association at their annual meeting in Orlando Florida on November 13, 2009. The Lazarfeld Theory Award is presented to an individual whose written work on evaluation theory has led to fruitful debates on the assumptions, goals, and practices of evaluation.
Dr. Mertens posits that the field of evaluation can transform society through work that shares - or brings - the voices of those pushed to societal margins into the world of research. This applies to those discriminated and oppressed due to factors including but not limited to race/ethnicity, disability, immigrant status, political conflicts, sexual orientation, poverty, gender or age as well as power structures that perpetuate social inequities and indigenous people and scholars from marginalized communities undergoing change. Mertens explains that "The transformative approach to evaluation makes explicit the use of evaluation for the purpose of furthering social justice."
Program evaluation; Transformative research and evaluation; Cultural complexity in program evaluation
