Indigenous Insights: An Evaluation Podcast

In this episode, Gladys sits down with Dr. Chesleigh Keene, Diné (Navajo) scholar and Vice President of Research and Evaluation at a Native-owned organization, to explore her journey into Indigenous evaluation. What began in relationship with her students supporting them in grounding their research in community evolved into a career shaped by cultural values, storytelling, and relational accountability.

Dr. Keene reflects on teaching during the pandemic, navigating academia as an Indigenous scholar, and shifting from traditional academic models toward community-centered research and evaluation. Together, Gladys and Chesleigh explore what it means to let stories “touch us” as evaluators, to move beyond rigid templates, and to resist flattening the complexity of community experiences. They discuss the importance of slowing down, asking better questions, honoring seasonal rhythms, and tending to the emotional impact of the work on ourselves and our teams.

This episode is an invitation to practice evaluation as relationship, to be changed by the work, and to carry that responsibility with care.

Bio

Dr. Chesleigh Keene (Diné/Navajo) serves as vice president for KAI’s research and evaluation team, bringing over a decade of experience advancing health and wellness in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and improving health and wellness outcomes through culture-centric research, teaching, and service. Guided by Indigenous values, Dr. Keene integrates cultural and ceremonial elements into her work, focusing on cancer prevention, mental health, and education initiatives for AI/AN populations. She has collaborated on multidisciplinary teams, promoted cultural sensitivity in research, and taught graduate courses with a focus on Indigenous perspectives. Dr. Keene’s career spans impactful roles in academia, mental health treatment, and community health, including leading the first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Day of Honor at Northern Arizona University. She has worked with the Native American Research Centers for Health and the National Cancer Institute, championing diversity and inclusion in health research. Dr. Keene holds a doctor of philosophy degree in counseling psychology from the University of Denver; a master of art degree in community counseling from Loyola University; and a bachelor of art degree in psychology from Fort Lewis College. 

 

Resources

Insights For Indigenous Evaluation Book (Open access and free online!) https://pressbooks.pub/indigenousinsightscollective/ 

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Overview 

Season 5 opens with a reflective and “meta” conversation about the creation of Insights for Indigenous Evaluation—an open-access book drawn from the first season of the podcast. Gladys is joined by Taylor Wilson and Nadine Flagel, who share the journey of transforming spoken conversations into a living, multimedia text.

Together, they explore what it means to carry stories with care: honoring voice, relational accountability, Indigenous knowledge stewardship, and editorial responsibility. The episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at decisions around accessibility, open access publishing, copyright, and co-creation. Rather than producing a traditional textbook, the team chose to create a reflective, multi-vocal resource that invites readers into relationship with Indigenous evaluation practices.

This conversation highlights themes of Indigenous resurgence, relational editing, stylistic integrity, and knowledge sovereignty while reminding listeners that how we publish and share knowledge must align with the values we hold in evaluation practice. The episode closes with an invitation to engage with the book, support the podcast, and continue learning in community.

Taylor Wilson is an Ojibwe, Cree, and Filipina scholar and member of Fisher River Cree Nation on Treaty 5 territory, with connections to Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1), Fairford First Nation (Treaty 2), and the Ilocano region of the Philippines. She grew up between Fisher River and Winnipeg (Treaty 1 and homeland of the Métis Nation) and now lives and works primarily the traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation. Taylor is currently pursuing her PhD in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia.

 

Taylor’s work is rooted in Indigenous food sovereignty, health, and evaluation, with a commitment to Indigenous methodologies, relational accountability, and data sovereignty. She has contributed to community-based research and evaluation, curriculum development, and taught in Australia, Hawai’i, and across central and western Canada. She began her journey with Dr. Gladys Rowe and the Indigenous Insights team in 2024 offering support to the many projects, partners, and communities they work with. She describes herself as a learner, listener, and helper to strengthen relationships, stories, and practices that sustain Indigenous life for generations to come.

Nadine Flagel is a Vancouver, BC-based settler with English, Irish, and German roots. She has a BA in English from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Sussex, in Brighton, UK, and a PhD in twentieth-century English Literature from Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS. Her dissertation was about how contemporary fiction borrows from 18th and 19th century black autobiography, especially slave narratives. Nadine taught literature and composition on contract at various postsecondary institutions in Canada for nearly twenty years. She has also worked as a grant and report writer at not-for-profits. Now she works as a researcher, writer and editor on books and articles connected to social justice. She’s also a textile artist with a specialty in reusing fabrics in rugs and quilts.

Resources

Insights For Indigenous Evaluation Book (Open access and free online!) https://pressbooks.pub/indigenousinsightscollective/ 

Elements of Indigenous Style, Gregory Younging
Beneath the Red Umbrella, Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Carrie Porth & contributors

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf

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Overview 

In this closing episode of the Season 4 Spotlight Series, Dr. Gladys Rowe and Dr. Elizabeth Carlson-Manathara reflect back on the teachings, tensions, and transformations that emerged across the season’s conversations. This episode creates space for collective sensemaking, where Liz and Gladys reflect on how these dialogues have shifted their thinking about evaluation, leadership, and anti-colonial practice. 

Drawing on lessons from guests throughout the season, they explore the importance of doing the “work before the work,” grounding evaluation in relationship, story, and accountability. The conversation weaves together reflections on Indigenous and anti-colonial theories of change, the courage to “say the things,” evaluation as a practice of love, and the responsibility to evaluate toward the futures we want to live into. The episode closes with gratitude for the guests and listeners who journeyed through the season, and an invitation to carry these teachings forward into evaluation spaces, institutions, and everyday practice guided by love, humility, and relational accountability. 

Resources

Leanne Simpson As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34850530-as-we-have-always-done 

 

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Corrie Whitmore, Associate Professor of Health Sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage, served as 2023 President of the American Evaluation Association and founding president (2012) of the Alaska Evaluation Network (AKEN). She is a lifelong Alaskan who returned to the state after completing an M.S. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Tech to help Alaska "grow our own" workforce and support the health of our community in the Division of Population Health Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her current work centers around exploring the role of trust in a patient-provider relationship and evaluating programs designed to build and support community wellness, particularly in tribal contexts. Dr. Whitmore's teaching invites story into the health policy classroom, partners evaluation students with community programs where they can apply their learning to support operations, and introduces students to what public health looks like in Alaska.

Overview 

In this episode Dr. Gladys Rowe and Dr. Elizabeth Carlson-Manathara are joined by Dr. Corrie Whitmore, Associate Professor of Health Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage, former President of the American Evaluation Association, and founding President of the Alaska Evaluation Network. Corrie shares her journey as an “accidental evaluator,” tracing how her lifelong relationship to Alaska, her academic training in psychology, and her work within Alaska Native–led health systems shaped her understanding of evaluation as a deeply relational and community-rooted practice.

The conversation explores the role of trust, story, and cultural humility in evaluation, particularly within Indigenous and Tribal contexts. Corrie reflects on learning to move beyond Western notions of professionalism and expertise, emphasizing the importance of showing up as a full human being in relationship with community. She shares lessons from her work in Alaska Native health organizations, her experiences building local evaluation capacity, and her leadership within AEA—including her decision to center story as the 2023 conference theme. Throughout the episode, Corrie speaks candidly about mistakes, learning, and growth, offering grounded insights into land acknowledgements, Indigenous sovereignty, evaluation ethics, and the responsibility evaluators hold to listen, witness, and translate community knowledge without extracting it. The episode closes with a powerful reminder that evaluation, at its best, is not about distance or neutrality but about relationship, accountability, and honoring the stories communities entrust us to carry forward.

Resources 

Article: Teaching Evaluation Through Community-Engaged Learning Courses

Article: Making Land Acknowledgements in the University Setting Meaningful and Appropriate

Article: Facilitating Culturally Safe Conversations Around Substance Use Disorder and Contraception to Provide Inclusive Care for Neurodiverse and Neurotypical Populations

 

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Bio

Hafsa Mustafa – Decolonial MEL Strategist - is a researcher, writer, and data expert with more than 20 years of experience in the field of learning and evaluation. Hafsa's perspective is rooted in both professional expertise and personal history.

Her career spans grassroots movements, philanthropy, impact investing, and academia, where she has helped organizations turn complex information into actionable insights and impact strategies that are grounded, equity-driven, and built to endure.

Informed by mentorship across global movements and a family legacy rooted in justice, she is committed to making research and evaluation non-extractive, relational, and a driver of transformative change.

 

Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, hosts Dr. Gladys Rowe and Dr. Elizabeth Carlson-Manathara are joined by Hafsa Mustafa, a decolonial monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategist whose 20+ years of work span grassroots movements, philanthropy, impact investing, and academia.

Hafsa shares her evaluation origin story, weaving together her family’s history of displacement under British colonialism, her experience growing up in Karachi’s dual education systems, and her awakening to how colonial frameworks shape knowledge, language, and data. In this episode, the conversation moves through the many ways Hafsa is reimagining evaluation as a liberatory and justice-oriented practice. She shares how her partnerships with global social movements have reshaped the meaning of impact - centering collaboration, relationship, and shared power rather than compliance or control. Hafsa reflects on the principles of trust-based giving, which challenge traditional philanthropy by emphasizing long-term, relationship-centered approaches grounded in mutual accountability. Drawing inspiration from solidarity economies in Mexico, landless worker movements in Brazil, and women’s cooperatives in Nepal, she highlights how collective power and intergenerational learning create sustainable change. Finally, Hafsa introduces her “liberatory evaluation” tools - the diagnostic and champion’s map - that help individuals and organizations locate themselves within systems of power and envision tangible pathways toward equity and transformation.

 

Resources 

Just Insights – https://justinsights.org

 

Email: [email protected] 

For more visit: https://www.gladysrowe.com/podcast (Scroll to the bottom to subscribe to the newsletter!)

If you are loving this podcast please leave a five star review on your favourite streaming service.

If you would like to offer support please visit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/InsightsPod