Melanie Hwalek Ph.D.

Area of Interest

Faculty Information

Melanie Hwalek received her Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology with a minor in Research Design and Methodology from Wayne State University. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of Social Program Evaluators & Consultants, Inc. (SPEC Associates), a non-profit program evaluation and process improvement organization headquartered in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Melanie has more than 30 years of experience conducting program evaluations ranging from small evaluations for grassroots human service organizations to large-scale, multi-state evaluations for large national organizations and foundations. Melanie has evaluated programs in a wide range of topic areas including early childhood education, youth development, substance abuse prevention and treatment, community-based long term care, elder abuse and neglect, online communities of practice, and higher education policy change. She is a past Board member of the American Evaluation Association and the Michigan Association for Evaluation. She served as the Chair of the Independent Consulting Topical Interest Group and as a member of the Cultural Competence Statement Dissemination Workgroup of the American Evaluation Association. Melanie holds a Credentialed Evaluator designation from the Canadian Evaluation Society.

Featured Projects and Reports

Hwalek, M. and Grcich Williams, M. (2011) The Real-Time Evaluation Memo: A Tool for Enabling Evaluative Thinking and Learning in Foundations and Nonprofits. Foundation Review, Vol 2:3 pp. 25-35.

Brandon, P., Smith, N. and Hwalek, M. (2011) Evaluation Exemplar: Aspects of Successful Evaluation Practice at an Established Private Evaluation Firm. American Journal of Evaluation, Vol 2:2 pp. 295-307.

Hwalek, M. and Barber, G. J. (2006), Building your evaluation business into a valuable asset. New Directions for Evaluation, 2006: 41–49. doi: 10.1002/ev.195