Brookfield Zoo

The Brookfield Zoo will design and implement a professional development program in evaluation capacity building for the zoo's Conservation, Education, and Training department managers. The training will focus on building their understanding of the role of front-end, formative, and summative evaluation; understanding how logic models support program development and frame evaluation; interest in being a partner in evaluation; interest in evaluation-based program improvement; confidence to apply evaluation findings; and confidence to construct and use logic models. The project is designed to build managers capacity to be partners with the organization's professional researchers and evaluators in order to bolster their ability to develop outcomes-focused programs and act on evaluation findings. The zoo's published framework for educator engagement in program evaluation will provide the groundwork for project activities.