Dr. Jeff Sheldon: Brevitas

Jeff Sheldon, Ph.D. is a highly experienced, well - regarded, versatile, and adaptable “pracademic” social scientist who has worked, thus far, in the nonprofit and public sectors across a wide variety of organizational types over the course of his estimable career. Guided by the values of community psychology which speaks to inclusiveness in the applied research and evaluation enterprise, taking context (i.e., people are centered in their communities) into consideration, valuing diversity, privileging the voices of community members, empowerment and self-determination, and creating communities of learning and practice, Dr. Sheldon has ethically conducted numerous applied research and evaluation projects as both sole practitioner and team member using a theory-driven approach and the application of rigorous, mixed social science research methods focusing on systemic improvement and organizational mission. In addition to his research and evaluation expertise and experience, he is also an effective and capable program developer, project director and manager, graduate-level teacher and research mentor, funding proposal and business developer, peer reviewer, published author with nearly 300 citations, conference presenter, and research and evaluation capacity builder, who always works from a position of cultural sensitivity. As an academic, Dr. Sheldon’s own research interests encompass empowerment and self-determination based interventions, and schools that use evaluative inquiry for organizational learning, among others. In practice, Dr. Sheldon is interested in improving the human condition.???

Over the course of his career, Dr. Sheldon has held numerous leadership and management positions, and is considered to be effective and transformative in both roles. By way of example, he’s led an academic science department of nine faculty members as their chair, was a three-time chair of American Evaluation Association topical interest groups [i.e., community psychology (2), and organizational learning and evaluation capacity building], led a NSF – funded Harvard University multi-site study in informal afterschool science (one research associate), was the evaluation manager and technical assistant for the South Carolina First Steps to School readiness initiative (46 counties and 200+ programs), and was the community development project director for a multi-site child abuse and neglect prevention program funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (eight direct reports from the South Carolina Department of Social Services). Earlier in his career Dr. Sheldon served as director of institutional advancement for a two-year college in which he secured over $7 million in funding, served three years as an officer on the board of directors for a local YMCA, and twice chaired the executive director search committee for a small foundation. As a volunteer, Dr. Sheldon served four years as a Guardian ad Litem, representing abused and neglected children in family court.?

Currently, Dr. Sheldon serves as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University (RU – GSAPP) where he uses his practical research and analytical expertise to teach statistical methods and research design in the Master of Arts in Applied Psychology Program. During the three immediate years prior, Dr. Sheldon was an adjunct professor and lecturer in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego (USD – SOLES) where he taught the literature review seminar (twice), survey research methods, research design and methods for global and intercultural leaders, evaluation theory, and evaluation practice.?Additionally, he served as a committee member on a successfully defended doctoral dissertation and currently serves as a committee member for three of his other doctoral students. Notably, Sheldon was nominated as the Department of Leadership Studies’ adjunct professor of the year for academic year 2021-2022, winning the popular vote, but losing in the “electoral college.”?

Last, Dr. Sheldon holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in applied psychology from The Claremont College’s Claremont Graduate University School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation – Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences with a concentration in social science research methods and evaluation science; a master’s degree in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University with concentrations in education law and non-profit management; and was a Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Since 2014 Dr. Sheldon has been an affiliated research associate and data analyst at Wichita State University’s Community Engagement Institute - Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CEI - CARE) where he has worked on a variety of community-based research projects.?

Dr. Sheldon is available and ready for new career opportunities and can be contacted by email at [email protected] or via InMail if you're interested in working with him.

LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jeff-sheldon-ed-m-ph-d-76a5783/

Twitter: @ResearcherJeff

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