Ross F. Conner

Residence: Los Angeles USA

IOCE Position: President, Funding Team (with Simon Kisira)

Affiliation: American Evaluation Association, Past President; currently on the AEA International Committee

Ross Conner is on the faculty of the University of California at Irvine, where he is Director of the Center for Community Health Research in the School of Social Ecology. He also serves on the faculty of the Evaluators’ Institute (USA), the Claremont Graduate University’s Evaluation and Applied Research Methods summer institute (USA), and American Hospital Association-Healthforum (USA) teaching and advising on community-based evaluation. He recently led training workshops for the Australasian Evaluation Society and the European Evaluation Society/UK Evaluation Society.

Ross received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in social psychology and evaluation from Northwestern University USA and his B.A. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University USA. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, and was a W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellow. He received the American Evaluation Association’s 2002 Outstanding Evaluation Award for his evaluation of the Colorado (USA) Healthy Communities Initiative and the UC Health Net Wellness Lecturer Award (1992) for his evaluation of a migrant worker HIV/AIDS prevention program.

Ross is the author/editor or co-author/editor of 9 books and numerous book chapters, papers and articles on topics including evaluation methodology, utilization, training, international and cross-cultural issues.

Ross works primarily on community health promotion and disease prevention. Using the World Health Organizations’ “healthy communities” framework, he works in partnership with communities of many types, from the US and abroad, including various racial/ethnic communities (Hispanic/Latino, Chinese and Korean) and immigrant communities (migrant farm workers). The focuses of these projects are determined by the communities and include HIV/AIDS, cancer, community development, leadership and many others. Ross’ international work began many years ago when he served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, where he learned to speak French and Arabic. He also speaks some Spanish.

October 2006