2011 OPEG Awardees

In May, 2011, Rob Fischer, OPEG’s immediate past President, received the Roberta O’Keefe Recognition Award for outstanding service to the organization. Currently, Rob is the Co-director of Case Western Reserve University’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development. Rob served on the OPEG Board for many years, most recently as President from 2005 to 2011. The Board was well-served by his steady, guiding hand and wealth of institutional and historical knowledge. Upon receiving his award, Dr. Fischer surprised the audience by reading a poem he had written about his time with OPEG, which can be read here.

Dr. Kimberly Downing is the 2011 recipient of the OPEG Evaluation Recognition Award. A political scientist by training, Kim graduated from Michigan State University and received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Kim has been with the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati since 1995, and currently serves as Co-Director of the Institute. A highly regarded public opinion researcher and scholar, Kim’s work over the last decade evaluating organ and tissue donation promotion initiatives has been particularly influential. She has conducted federally-funded studies of Ohio’s first-person consent organ donation registry and work to encourage older adults to become donors.

Year	Evaluation Recognition Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Program Evaluation in Ohio	Roberta O’Keefe Award for Outstanding Contribution to OPEG
2011	Kim Downing University of Cincinnati Co-Director of Institute for Policy Research	Rob Fischer Case Western Reserve University Co-Director, Center for Urban Poverty and Community Development
2010	Jerry Walker Ohio Department of Education Associate Director for Research and Evaluation	Jan Upton Institutional Research Consultants, Ltd. Independent Consultant
2009	Dee Roth Ohio Department of Mental Health Chief Of Program Evaluation & Research Retired in April 2009	Marsha Zabecki Ohio Department of Mental Health Mental Health Administrator
2008	Peter Leahy The University Of Akron Urban Studies	Debbie Crawford Deborah A. Crawford Consulting LLC Independent Consultant
2007	Jerry Bean The Evaluation Support Group Independent Consultant	Sandy Ortega Kent State University
2006	Shiloh Turner Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati Mark Carrozza University of Cincinnati	Tom Archer The Ohio State University Extension Service
2005	Claudia Coulton Case Western Reserve University Jan Upton Institutional Research Consultants, Ltd. Independent Consultant	Steve Albanese, Maryhaven
2004	Mina Chang Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County	Shelly Brazier Child Focus
	2000 - 2003  Incomplete Records
1999		Gabe Blummer
	1986 - 1998 Incomplete Records
1985	Dee Roth Ohio Department of Mental Health	James Altschuld Ohio State University Professor Received the American Evaluation Association’s Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Practice Award for contributions to evaluation in 2002

2010 OPEG Awardees

Jan Upton received the Roberta O’Keefe Recognition Award for outstanding service to the organization. Jan served as OPEG’s Secretary (2006-2010). She has been active on the Program Committee and has presented at OPEG on evaluation planning, consulting, and institutional review board issues. OPEG recognized Jerry Walker for his contributions to the field of evaluation. Jerry has a long-term career as an evaluation researcher and regularly presents on popular topics such as “Mucking with Education Data.