Last year I had an opportunity to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It was my first time visiting the museum, which was designed and curated around the Lorraine Motel, the location where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Like many of you, the images of this motel and Dr. King, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and Ralph Abernathy on the balcony outside room 306 is something that has had a profound impact on my life.

As I walked up to the motel and that balcony, it was emotional and powerful. I was angry, sad, proud, and inspired. I walked onto the replica of the bus where Rosa Parks sat down, and imagined her strength and sacrifice. I walked across the replica of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and rewatched Bloody Sunday and the courage of the late John Lewis and so many others who fought for justice and suffered unimaginable physical harm. I read and saw images of so many names I did not know, who sacrificed their lives as they participated in sit-ins and freedom rides. I was reminded of the ultimate sacrifices made for this fight for justice, including the replica of the bus carrying freedom riders who were bombed by a white mob in Anniston, AL. I listened to Dr. King’s last speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, his last night alive.

As I reflect on this powerful experience, I am reminded of the many judicial and legislative actions taken recently that could weaken our resolve to advance racial equity—if we let it. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade after 60 years and has taken dramatic steps to eliminate Affirmative Action after 50 years and opened the door to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ individuals. States have passed anti-DEI legislation. It is easy to look at all these efforts and feel discouraged, angry, and confused. Dr. King reminded us that the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I am glad I was reminded of that with my visit to the National Civil Rights Museum as I take in, like all of you, what this means for us and our country. This is a theme I explore further in our just-released podcast with Chantel Rush Tebbe of the Kresge Foundation.

As I reflect on Equal Measure’s journey, at the onset of 2024—a year where we will celebrate our 40^th anniversary—I am even more determined to think about what we can do, in partnership with our clients and colleagues, to bend that arc back toward justice. During our 40-year history, we have gone through several transformations, the most significant of which is shifting our focus on social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion to centering racial equity in everything we do.

Race is the strongest predictor of one’s success in this country. From infant mortality to life expectancy—you just have to look at the data! These inequities will continue until we close the gaps where race no longer predicts life outcomes, while improving outcomes for all. And we know it is not just about race. We must also address compound inequities through intersectionality, a term Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined in the 1980s. Without a true commitment to racial equity and intersectionality, there is no transformation or true healing.

The late Dr. Stafford Hood, one of the founders of CREA, would often say, “Evaluators must work hard in preparing to enter a community, neighborhood, or organization; they have a responsibility to educate themselves.” He was right. Understanding the historical and cultural context, analyzing the root causes of inequities and racism, and having the perspective to understand that even those with our background will never be above learning (and unlearning!)—this must be done to achieve substantive knowledge of communities. Only then can we make change alongside community members. This is how we begin to transform and heal.

To understand a community deeply—and as a first step in our use of knowledge to advocate and transform—we must understand root causes of inequities. I’d like to share two examples of Equal Measure’s work, tied to our vision of a society where race no longer predicts life outcomes.

In 2021 we conducted a multi-site evaluation of Lumina Foundation’s Talent Hubs—which is a collective impact initiative bringing together educators, workforce development officials, community leaders, policymakers, business leaders, and other local players—to create better opportunities for students of color and first-generation college students, to access higher education and careers. We explored and observed root cause analyses in three communities—Dayton, Ohio; Shasta County, California; and St. Louis, Missouri, identifying four approaches, grounded in data, to unpack root causes of inequities in these communities. These approaches included:

• Elevating social determinants, such as understanding off-campus factors that affect educational experiences and outcomes.
• Disaggregating student outcomes. An example of this would be examining student data by race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other demographic characteristics to understand differences masked by aggregated data.
• Unearthing historic and systemic injustices such as racism, sexism, and xenophobia, and exploring their effect on communities.
• Reorienting institutional policies and practices, such as identifying those at postsecondary institutions to understand the degree to which they are discriminatory and may perpetuate or create disparate outcomes across groups.

We observed how these root cause analyses helped provide a spark toward action, and I believe transformation and healing—encouraging academic institutions, community leaders, policymakers, and business leaders to come together, surface beliefs, and apply a racial equity lens to the challenge of transforming local education and workforce systems. Dayton’s postsecondary institutions now talk publicly about the historic roots of systemic racism in their city. Sinclair Community College created a college pathways initiative for Black men. Shasta County Public Schools now has spaces for tribal leaders to become more involved in shaping education in the region. And 16 colleges and universities in Missouri are now committed to changing policies on access, affordability, representation, persistence, and completion for Black students and students with low-income.

In 2022, we started working with the Boston Foundation to help them tell the story about their new strategy—“Our New Pathway.” Two commitments sit at the center of Our New Pathway: repair the harm caused by systemic economic, social, gender, and racial disparities across all dimensions in society, and build and nourish ideas and programs that contribute to an equitable and just society for marginalized communities.

The Boston Foundation dug deep into their community—driven by a search for knowledge around bringing truth to its history, to deepen their understanding of how systemic and structural disparities have plagued Boston, as well as the entire commonwealth of Massachusetts.

These two examples keep me encouraged about the work we need to continue to build on.

Like the Boston Foundation, Equal Measure has recently completed a new strategic plan, with racial equity and place-based systems change at the core of all our work, and driven by our commitment to evaluation, strategy, and communications.

We believe advancing racial equity requires partners and allies to be engaged in learning and unlearning; as individuals, as organizations, and in partnership with the communities they serve.

We believe the voices and experiences of those affected by structural racism must be amplified to shift power and centered in the design of more just systems.

We believe getting to the root causes of structural racism and enabling those with influence and resources to change their behaviors are essential to addressing systemic inequities.

We believe developing an equity mindset, changing narratives, and shared accountability are critical levers to lasting, structural change.

We are all on this learning journey together, with healing and transformation as the North Star. Let’s understand, explore, share, reflect, and engage in discourse as we explore together how we can have an even greater impact.

This is a critical moment and time in our history, and I believe what we decide to stand for as evaluators and as a field is vital for our country’s history and future. So, let’s be bold and courageous together!

Let’s Step Up! Let’s Show Up! Let’s Speak Up!