LLC Member Spotlight: Hanh Cao Yu, Social Policy Research Associates

We are pleased to begin the New Year with Hanh Cao Yu, Vice President and Senior Social Scientist at Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) as our first “spotlighted” member for 2010. Social Policy Research Associates has been a member of the Leadership Learning Community since 2005. In November of 2005, Hanh participated in and played a co-facilitative role at LLC’s joint Funders and Evaluation Circle meeting on Multi-Cultural Evaluation of Leadership Development at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. Since then, Hanh has participated in many local Bay Area Circle meetings and LLC’s national meeting, Creating Space. Hanh also serves as a member of the Leadership for a New Era Advisory Committee, a collaborative initiative that focuses on understanding how leadership can become more inclusive, networked and collective. Hanh’s contributions are always thoughtful and insightful – and we value all her contributions as a member of the Leadership Learning Community.

Social Policy Research Associates, a national research, evaluation and technical assistance firm, headquartered in Oakland, California. The principals have evaluated a number of leadership and capacity building projects and are adept in applying mixed-method evaluation approaches to large scale projects. SPR’s experienced and culturally competent research team also brings rigor and innovation to their evaluation design and implementation. They strive to be sensitive to the cultural, political, and social contexts where they work and regularly build in multiple opportunities to authentically engage key stakeholders in all phases of the project. Some of their notable projects include The Evaluation of the Ford Foundation’s Youth Leadership Development Initiative; and The Evaluation of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), and The California Endowment’s national scan of capacity building approaches to increase the effectiveness of state and local advocates working in partnership with communities of color.

Starting in 2010, SPR will be conducting a study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) entitled Evaluating and Connecting Powerful Pathways of Diverse SF Bay Area Community Health Leaders. The RWJF’s Community Health Leaders (CHL) Program offers a rare opportunity to recognize creative, innovative, and committed leaders who have made extraordinary contributions to increasing access to quality health care and improving health outcomes at the community level. While the program has been in existence for many years, the evaluation will examine these leaders’ traditional and untraditional pathways as community change agents who have impacted health improvement efforts. Their evaluation will employ an ethnographic evaluation design to conduct a leadership dialogue circle and in-depth case studies of the nine San Francisco Bay Area recipients. The goal is to examine, compare, and contrast the influential forces and defining events that shaped CHLs’ leadership pathways. The evaluation will be guided by a conceptual framework that incorporates “critical leadership pathways.” Key analytical elements for exploring the professional, personal, and leadership experiences include the role and influence of (1) historical, social, and political context, (2) cultural and family history, (3) roadblocks and barriers, (4) defining moments and events, (5) relationship/network/skill building, (6) mentors and collaborators, and (7) learnings and breakthroughs. In addition, the evaluation will examine leadership processes, strategies, and outcomes that can be attributed to the CHL award.