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Dr. Stephen Magura, who has served as director of The Evaluation Center since 2007, is assuming the role of research director - behavioral health as of December 16, 2019. Dr. Magura will continue to build on his exceptional track record of research and evaluation in the areas of substance abuse and evidence-based health practices. In his new role, he will advise and mentor other members of the University community who wish to pursue external funding for research and evaluation in these and related areas. He will take special responsibility for coordinating WMU’s response to the opioid epidemic.  His new grant, Advancing the Use of Oral Fluid to Monitor Therapeutic and Illicit Drugs in Clinical and Field Settings, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, will compare the results of oral fluid vs. urine testing to expand options for opioid and other drug testing in high risk populations.

Dr. Lori Wingate will assume the role of executive director of The Evaluation Center on December 16, 2019. Dr. Wingate has held several roles in the Center since 1997, most recently director of research. She is the principal investigator for EvaluATE, the evaluation hub for the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. EvaluATE, which is supported by the largest grant ever awarded by NSF for the purposes of evaluation capacity building, provides an array training Â鶹´«Ã½ and resource materials to improve the quality of evaluation in the ATE program and beyond. With colleagues at The Evaluation Center and Extended University Programs, Dr. Wingate is building on the success of EvaluATE to develop a comprehensive online professional development program in evaluation, slated to launch in early 2021. She will continue her work with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a subject matter expert on evaluation through an Intergovernmental Personal Act assignment. In her new role, Dr. Wingate will work with partners from across the University to build on WMU’s reputation as a leader in evaluation locally, nationally, and internationally. For example, she is serving as WMU’s internal evaluator for the NSF-ADVANCE-funded Joining Forces project, a collaboration between WMU, Iowa State University, North Dakota State University, and Michigan Technological University. And, she recently spearheaded efforts to resume the Center’s role as home to the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, a coalition of professional organizations with a stake in the quality of educational evaluation in both the U.S. and Canada. 

The Evaluation Center was established in 1965 in response to the growing demand for evaluation of federally-funded educational programs. In 1973, the Center moved from The Ohio State University to WMU.  The WMU Evaluation Center is one of the oldest university-based evaluation centers in the world.