Boost your capacity. Focus your effort. Get greater impact.
Hi, I’m Kim!
Founder/Principal of Leonard Research & Evaluation
I help leaders like you ask and answer better questions so we can move toward a more equitable future.
Leonard Research & Evaluation partners with foundations, nonprofits and consultants to gather and make sense of data to help you learn and improve.
What I do
Program Evaluation
Through equity-driven, human-centered program evaluation we can better understand what is working and what isn’t, and adjust accordingly. My work is grounded in the Equitable Evaluation Framework (TM) which calls us to use evaluation itself to advance equity, honor how we got here and why and be inclusive of multiple ways of knowing and thinking.
I am not a neutral party — I’m your thought partner and advocate. I want programs like yours to succeed in improving the systems and conditions in which we live and work. I am also going to ask hard questions and set high expectations because people deserve programs and systems that help them thrive.
Let’s build trusting relationships that allow us to understand programs and the people they serve. We can create meaningful, lasting learning and improvement and tell more holistic and honest stories about how change happens.
Survey Design
Surveys are still one of the most commonly used tools for plenty of good reasons, including that they allow us to hear from a lot of people over a relatively short period of time.
But doing surveys well requires great care, especially when we truly want to respect the time, energy and expertise of the people we hope will respond. And in the face of growing digital and survey fatigue. Fortunately, I wrote the book on respondent-centered survey design!
Through customized survey design, training and coaching, I build and help others build surveys that meet important information needs while making sure respondents feel heard and understood.
Let’s make surveys feel more like conversations than questionnaires, and gain more trustworthy, useful information as a result.
Who I am and how I work
I’m a researcher, evaluator, facilitator, collaborator, and communicator with over 15 years of experience in program evaluation and improvement, most recently within philanthropy. I am incredibly fortunate to be a practitioner and champion of the Equitable Evaluation Framework (TM).
I’m also a mother, daughter, wife, dog and cat parent, gardener, knitter, lover of arts and artists and bad reality TV (balance is good, right?).
I start with curiosity and work to get to know the people and context of a project or program. I act as a facilitator of learning and a promoter of equity and justice. I’m passionate about helping people thrive and empathetic to a fault, if that is possible.
I work collaboratively as much as possible to build shared ownership of what we learn.
My aim is to minimize burden and build power. I want people to feel seen, heard and understood so that their expertise is trusted and leads to better decisions and more humane programs and systems.
I want research and evaluation activities to be much better experiences for everyone involved — minimizing and undoing harm whenever possible and resulting in more meaningful, valid, and useful data.
I believe that this work can be joyful and engaging, and that creating space for connection is vital to making our communities more just and equitable.
My Values
Authenticity – Being human is messy – let’s embrace it.
Community, not competition – I believe that resources are plentiful and that we can do more together than alone.
Creativity & adaptability – Creative thinking is necessary. I assume things will evolve and change.
Learning & curiosity – Learning and curiosity are core to my practice, and I love when questions result in more questions.
Future-facing – I want to focus on what is possible, and spend more of my time imagining our way to a better future.
These values help me contribute to a more equitable, just world. The pursuit of equity and justice are my why — the reason I do this work and in the way that I do it.
