Keynote speakers

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead

Professor of Evaluation, University of Connecticut, USA

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead is a Professor of Evaluation at the University of Connecticut, where she also directs the Partnership for Evaluation and Educational Research (PEER) lab. She is currently the Co-Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Evaluation. She has served as a Board Member of the American Evaluation Association, and co-founded and Chaired the EvalYouth Global Network. Bianca’s research describes what is distinct about evaluation and the work evaluators do. One arm focuses on the boundaries between evaluation and other professions, and the translation of evaluation approaches to practice. A second arm focuses on how we teach others to “think” and “act” like evaluators and to exercise the types of judgment evaluation practice demands. A third arm centers on improving the tools we use in practice, with a recent focus on artificial intelligence. In 2020, Bianca began using open science practices to get her evaluation scholarship out from behind paywalls and into the hands of evaluation practitioners, managers, and commissioners. Bianca’s publications include special issues of evaluation journals, chapters, educational resources for teaching evaluation, evaluation-specific checklists, an R workbook, and several dozen journal articles and evaluation reports. She has led several multi-year process and impact evaluations guided by different evaluation approaches and that used quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. In addition to her university teaching, she has facilitated evaluation workshops in several countries, including Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, and Mexico.

Andi Fugard

Senior Director, Quantitative Impact Evaluation, Verian Group, UK

With over 15 years of experience in social science and evaluation, Dr Andi Fugard has led impact evaluations funded by UK government departments (e.g., Ministry of Justice, Department for Transport, and Home Office) and What Works Centres (e.g., Education Endowment Foundation, Youth Endowment Fund, and Foundations). Andi also has more than 40 publications on topics such as mental health treatment outcomes, language processing, psychology of reasoning, and research methodology. Previously, Andi co-directed Evaluation at the UK’s National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), held academic positions at University College London and Birkbeck, University of London, and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Salzburg. Andi holds a PhD in cognitive science from the University of Edinburgh. They are a member of the UK Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel (ETAP), which advises government on evaluation methods.

Angie Abdilla

Professor, School of Cybernetics, The Australian National University and Founder / Director of Old Ways, New

Professor Angie Abdilla is a palawa woman and is the founder and director of Old Ways, New. In her various roles as a strategic designer, creative practitioner, and consultant, Angie advocates for Indigenous peoples, knowledges and knowledge systems as foundational to technology automation through design and cultural practice. Her published research interrogates the praxis of Indigenous deeptime technologies and Artificial Intelligence, which continue to be informed by the Indigenous Protocols and AI working group (IP//AI), which she co-founded. As a creative practitioner, she works across film and video installation as an exhibiting artist. She created the company’s strategic design methodology, Country Centered Design, leading projects for the public and private sectors over the past decade. Angie continues to advise on the cultural and ethical affordances of automated systems and technologies internationally and locally.

Ray Lovett

Professor, Mayi Kuwayu Study, Yardhura Walani Centre, The Australian National University

Professor Ray Lovett is an Aboriginal (Ngiyampaa/Wongaibon) Australian social epidemiologist with extensive experience in health services research, large scale data analysis for public health policy development and evaluation. Ray leads Mayi Kuwayu, the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing and is an Executive member of the Maiam nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Collective in Australia and an Executive member of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance who created the Care principles in response to FAIR.

Bobby Maher

Researcher, Yardhura Walani Centre, The Australian National University

Bobby Maher is an Aboriginal woman (Yamatji, Noongar, Kija). Bobby brings expertise in developing Indigenist approaches to evaluation, and curriculum development relating to Indigenist evaluation and Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov). Bobby’s practice includes Indigenist evaluation and methodology, social epidemiology methods including validation of psychometric tools, systems thinking and community-based participatory research. 

Bobby is a member of the Australian Indigenous Data Sovereignty collective, Maiam nayri Wingara, and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance collective. She has experience in operationalising theoretical frameworks and principles relating to Indigenous Data Governance and has also written extensively on IDSov in Australia. Additionally, Bobby works collaboratively with international Indigenous leaders, scholars and activists on IDSov, including developing and facilitating a Masterclass in IDSov at the 2024 International Indigenous Research Conference and planning the 2025 Global Indigenous Data Sovereignty Conference.


Keynote abstracts

Do you prefer to dig deep or free range?

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead

Friday, 19 September 2025, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM, Royal Theatre

Today’s evaluation ecosystem is complex and ever-evolving. This keynote invites evaluators to reflect on their own professional instincts and locations within the ecosystem: Do you prefer to specialise in a focused area of practice, or do you thrive taking on projects in new areas? Do you have a proclivity for using specific methodologies, or are you methodologically eclectic? Inspired, in part, by story-telling and a popular animal metaphor that is reimagined for our field, this talk explores how evaluators often find themselves embracing one of two dominant frames—deep expertise or expansive expertise—or trying to move between or beyond them. We’ll consider how these orientations and our preferences for them shape our education pathways, influence how we connect with others in the field, and affect how we respond to ecosystem shocks like emerging technologies. This keynote will offer a fresh frame for thinking about professional identity, collaboration, and growth. Along the way, we’ll reflect, maybe laugh, and hopefully walk away with a renewed appreciation for the diverse ways we contribute to a thriving evaluation ecosystem.

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Challenging binaries in evaluation

Andi Fugard

Wednesday, 17 September 2025, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM, Royal Theatre

Evaluation is saturated with binaries. Impact evaluations are divided into counterfactual (generally statistical) or theory‐based (often so named when there is no comparison group). Statistical approaches, such as randomised controlled trials and quasi‐experiments, are frequently regarded as objective, while qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups are viewed as subjective. Additionally, professional expertise is often valued over lived experience, and professionals have a monopoly on theorising.However, statistical approaches to evaluation are deeply dependent on theories and rely on untestable assumptions – there is even a popular subjective interpretation of probability. Counterfactual thinking does not require a comparison group and can be done using qualitative evidence. Professionals are influenced by their lived experience too; however, this experience may clash with that of people engaging with the programmes being evaluated.
This talk will consider a range of prevalent binaries in evaluation. Participants will be invited to reflect on the binary bubbles they may inhabit and consider what might happen if we stretch, merge, or burst them.

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Navigating complex systems: Country Centred Design & Indigenous Protocols for AI

Angie Abdilla

Wednesday, 17 September 2025, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Royal Theatre

This talk explores the work of Old Ways, New and the origins of Country Centred Design, a strategic design methodology developed by Old Ways, New, alongside their research project, Indigenous Protocols for AI (IP//AI). We will examine the impact of this work over nearly a decade. Through creative practice, exploratory visual and oral storytelling, Indigenous worldviews, values, and ways of seeing, being, knowing, and doing will be shared. These perspectives offer insight into how Indigenous principles of governance and leadership enable deeply nuanced understanding of complexity, relationality, and reciprocity. The talk will showcase two artworks developed through Country Centred Design and IP//AI, identifying an alternative culture of evaluation through creative research practice.

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Let’s get real: Transforming evaluation through Indigenous-led practice

Ray Lovett and Bobby Maher

Thursday, 18 September 2025, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM, Royal Theatre

The time for token consultation is over. The time for transformative, Indigenous-led evaluation is now.In this keynote, we move beyond the safe confines of “cross-cultural” approaches and into the relational heart of Indigenist evaluation paradigms—where partnerships are deep, accountability is mutual, and power is rebalanced. It’s a challenge to commissioners, evaluators, and institutions alike: are you ready to shift from performative inclusion to genuine Indigenous leadership in evaluation?Through stories, provocation, and grounded practice, this session invites you to reflect on the systems you work within—especially the commissioning criteria and default processes that uphold the status quo. We’ll spotlight what it takes to centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems, not as an add-on, but as the foundation.You won’t leave with a checklist. You’ll leave with questions you can’t unask, a fire in your gut, and a deeper understanding of what real partnership means. If you’re serious about moving beyond the bubble in evaluation—don’t miss this.

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