Michelle Sloper

Michelle Sloper serves as an Associate Professor of Evaluation Practice at the Claremont Evaluation Center (CEC) of Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and Co-Director of YDEval (www.ydeval.com), operating remotely from Haines, Alaska. Her work integrates academic rigor with practical evaluation for youth-serving organizations nationwide, emphasizing collaborative relationships to transform evaluation from accountability compliance into continuous improvement tools.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Developmental Psychology & Evaluation, Claremont Graduate University
• MA in Developmental Psychology & Evaluation, Claremont Graduate University
• BA in Psychology, University of Alaska Anchorage

Sloper's research champions Positive Youth Development (PYD) through evaluation capacity building and evaluation use frameworks, focusing on expanded learning programs (afterschool/OST initiatives). She advocates for contextualized evaluation that empowers organizations through continuous quality improvement cycles, rejecting deficit-based approaches in favor of asset-focused methodologies that strengthen youth development ecosystems. Her work bridges academic theory with community implementation, particularly for hunger reduction programs, youth financial education, and early childhood quality initiatives.

Her 2016-2023 publications reveal consistent thematic evolution: early work established ecological asset-civic engagement linkages, while recent scholarship addresses the research-practice gap through parent engagement in girls' sports and California's expanded learning policy analysis. This trajectory demonstrates deepening focus on evaluation theory application within continuous quality improvement systems for OST programs, with increasing emphasis on equity-centered implementation.

Professional recognition includes:

• Alumni Emerging Leader Award from the University of Alaska Anchorage (2017)

As Principal Investigator for 30+ evaluations since 2009, Sloper has directed national youth development studies while mentoring graduate students through CGU's practicum programs. Her projects consistently prioritize organizational learning over compliance, with significant work on hunger reduction among college students and curriculum development for middle/high school financial literacy. Current initiatives focus on scaling evaluation capacity within school districts through the Los Angeles Unified School District's Beyond the Bell Branch model.

Sloper co-leads YDEval's specialized youth development evaluation practice while contributing to CGU's Claremont Evaluation Center. Her remote Alaskan base informs unique perspectives on rural education evaluation, complementing her School Board service for Haines Borough (population 2,600), where she implements evaluation principles in local policy decisions.