About Us
The Center for Program Design and Evaluation at Dartmouth (CPDE) provides in-depth research and consulting for organizations in the areas of:
- Program design and implementation
- Evaluation design and implementation
- Needs assessments
- Academic and educational research
- Grant writing
Our interdisciplinary team spans the disciplines of anthropology, business, medicine, psychology, and public health. Our considerable expertise in design and evaluation of educational programs, community- and clinic-based interventions, and complex programs places us in a unique position to assist organization and programs of all types.
The Center is housed within the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth. It operates with ties to Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. This association at Dartmouth provides a unique environment that includes a wide breadth of view, a multi-disciplinary team, a small, coherent core size, and access to innovative methodology—all in an environment dedicated to making a difference.
Director
Virginia A. Reed, Ph.D., is Research Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College and Research Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. She came to Dartmouth after spending many years in health care practice and consulting. She specializes in evaluation research, particularly in areas relating to medical and health care education. Dr. Reed's early background was in nursing, and she is a certified nurse-midwife. As Senior Consultant for Nursing for Phillips + Fenwick, she consulted with over 100 hospitals nationwide, guiding them in improving the quality of their women's health care programs. She has spoken extensively about implementing change in health care and about achieving cost efficiency. As a principal in the Center for Educational Outcomes at Dartmouth, a precursor to CPDE since 1997, she led evaluations for a wide range of local, national, and international programs. Dr. Reed's recent research has been in the area of learning experiences and in research methodology. She works with principal investigators and program directors to establish goals, develop methods, and create evaluation measures, benchmarks, and norms for a wide range of programs, from science and medical education to the end of life. In addition to assessing knowledge by traditional means, she develops tools for measuring changes in perceptions, values, and attitudes.
Associate Director
Karen Schifferdecker, Ph.D., a medical anthropologist, is a Research Assistant Professor at Dartmouth Medical School and Director of the Office of Community-based Education and Research. Dr. Schifferdecker has spent over 10 years designing and delivering educational programs and conducting evaluation measures for a wide range of programs, including community- and clinic-based interventions and medical education. She has particular expertise in designing and conducting mixed methods evaluation of interventions, including surveys, observations, interviews, and focus groups. As Associate Director of the CPDE, Dr. Schifferdecker works closely with Dr. Reed and CPDE staff to provide partners with timely input on program design, evaluation, and implementation to meet program goals.
Research Analyst
Sharon O'Connor, MBA, is currently an MS candidate at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. With 15 years of experience as project manager and research professional in the field of transportation planning and decision analysis, Ms. O'Connor provides program leadership with questionnaire, data collection, and analysis design and planning. A skilled analyst and communicator, she has worked in diverse work environments requiring high levels of collaboration and teamwork in private, public and non-profit agencies. Ms. O'Connor specializes in translating quantitative and qualitative data into clear, concise evidence and actionable results.
Research Analyst
Inger Imset has worked at Dartmouth Medical School for 13 years. Her work includes collaborating with partners on several grants to coordinate and facilitate implementation of programs to enhance physician, patient and student learning. Her expertise includes review and summary of scientific literature, human subjects research review and adherence to procedures and qualitative data collection and analysis. At CPDE, she facilitates collaboration between team members and project collaborators and ensures timely and thorough data collection for multiple projects.