Grounded Insights grew out of our shared history in higher education, community engagement, and nonprofit work, and our sense that something was missing from the strategies often used to transform these spaces. The problem became clear when we collaborated on a comprehensive academic program review facilitated by two different consulting groups. The consultants began by asking us to share our mission. Our responses revealed differing perspectives among institutional stakeholders and prompted excited internal conversations about what was possible. The consultants urged us to set those aside and move ahead with evaluation formulas built on flat metrics: numbers that showed what was happening but little about why, or what it meant to the people living it. In doing so, they missed the chance to help us build a reflexive, collective foundation. They also left us feeling alienated and frustrated by externally generated proposals that did not serve the institution.
These experiences showed us that evaluation can lead to a stronger, more unified organization, or it can create divisions and scars that constrain an organization's potential. The difference often comes down to grounding numbers in lived experience, through a process that is deliberative, inclusive, and rooted in an organization's unique culture, purpose, and history. We founded Grounded Insights to use our experience and expertise to help organizations get the right data and lay the groundwork for the growth and transformation they seek, so they can improve the lives of the communities they serve.
Monica DeHart holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University. A professor at the University of Puget Sound since 2004, she has chaired multiple programs and held leadership positions on university committees and special initiatives. She has over 30 years of experience conducting ethnographic research in diverse communities in Central America and the United States. Her research focuses on how culture and identity matter for community development at both local and global levels. She has a long history of collaborating with local partners to foster and assess community development initiatives in Tacoma, and has provided legal evaluations for asylum cases and conducted academic and public-sector program reviews.
Robin Jacobson is a Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, where she has taught since 2009 and has served as department chair and chair of the faculty. Her current research examines AI ethics and policy, with particular attention to fairness, racial justice, and democratic accountability. She is one of the faculty leading the University's AI and Human Values Initiative. As a political scientist, she brings methodological experience with statistical methods, interviews, focus groups, and archival research, and has authored books, research articles, policy reports, and advocacy plans. Dr. Jacobson has worked closely with community organizations addressing immigration and carceral issues.
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