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Ross F. Conner

Professor Emeritus of Planning, Policy & Design and Former Director, Center for Community Health Research
Ph.D. Northwestern University
Phone: 
+1-949-824-0563
Email: 
rfconner@uci.edu
Office: 
Rm 206F Bldg: SE1
Specializations: 
evaluation research and social psychology, health promotion, community-based planning for health
Department: 
Planning, Policy and Design

 

Summary of Research Interests and Professional Activities: Professor Conner's research examines community health promotion and disease prevention programs, specifically how they are best planned, tracked and evaluated. Using a social ecological perspective that defines ‘health’ broadly and focuses at both the individual and systems levels, he works in partnership with communities of many types and sizes, in the US and abroad. Dr. Conner’s most recent project was an assessment and strategic review of The California Endowment’s CommunitiesFirst grant program, which supported over 1,000 communities to select and act on health improvements. He also was the principal investigator for the ACCT Project: Achieving Cancer Control Together with Koreans and Chinese in Orange County, California, under The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s LIFP Program. This 5-year project focused mainly on breast and cervical cancers, through a collaboration among the Korean community, the Chinese community, the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, and the university. Among his past projects, he completed an 8-year evaluation of the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative, an extensive effort involving 28 Colorado communities; this evaluation investigated the processes, outcomes and impacts of this citizen- and community-based approach to health promotion and it included community indicators for 15 of the communities. This evaluation received the American Evaluation Association’s 2002 Outstanding Evaluation Award. Dr. Conner has also been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and evaluation. He has worked on HIV/AIDS prevention with migrant workers from Mexico, Central and South America, for which he received the 1992 UC Health Net Wellness Lecturer Award. Dr. Conner’s professional activities have focused on the field of evaluation, both nationally and internationally. He is a past president of the American Evaluation Association and a long-time contributor to the association’s activities. Most recently, he served as the U.S. representative to the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation, IOCE, the global evaluation professional association of national and regional societies. The other international IOCE representatives elected him to be the first official president of IOCE from 2006 to 2007. He continues to work with IOCE now as a Senior Adviser. Dr. Conner also is involved in international evaluation training. In the last two years, he has led workshops in Russia, London, Australia, New Zealand, and for the South Caucasus countries of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Selected Publications

Papers

  • Conner, R.F. Facilitating Evaluation around the World: A Description and Assessment of the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation. In Кузьмин А.И., О’Салливан Р. (ред.). Оценка программ: политика, теория и практика. Москва: ПРЕСТО-РК, 2009. (Kuzmin, A., O'Sullivan, R. (Eds.). Program Evaluation: Policy, Theory and Practice (working title). Moscow: PRESTO-RK, 2009.) In press.
  • Conner, R., and Easterling, D.  The Colorado Trust’s Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative: Results and Lessons for Comprehensive Community Initiatives.  The Foundation Review, 2009, in press.
  • Conner, R. F., & Christie, C. A. Evaluation of the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative: An Interview with Ross Conner. In J. Fitzpatrick, C. Christie, & M. M. Mark (eds.), Evaluation in Action: Interviews with Expert Evaluators. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009.
  • Vestman, O. K., and Conner, R.F. The Relationship between Evaluation and Politics. In I.F. Shaw, J.C. Greene and M.M. Mark (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Evaluation. London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2006. Reprinted in M. Segone (ed.), Bridging the Gap: The Role of Monitoring and Evaluation in Evidence-Based Policy Making. New York: UNICEF, 2007.
  • Gonzalez, E.R, Lejano, R.P., Vidales, G., Conner, R.F., Kidokoro, Y., Fazeli, B. and Cabrales, R. Participatory Action Research for Environmental Health: Encountering Freire in the Urban Barrio. Journal of Urban Affairs, 2007, 29:1, 77-100.
  • Conner, R.F., Takahashi, L., Ortiz, E., Archuleta, E., Muniz, J., and Rodriguez, J. The SOLAAR HIV Prevention Program for Gay and Bisexual Latino Men: Using Social Marketing to Build Capacity for Service Provision and Evaluation. AIDS Education and Prevention, 2005, 17:4, 361-374.
  • Conner, R.F., Tanjasiri, S.P., Dempsey, C., Robles, G., Davidson, M. and Easterling, D. The Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative: Communities Defining and Addressing Health. In D. Easterling, K. Gallagher and D. Lodwick (eds.) Promoting Health at the Community Level. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.
  • Conner, R.F., Easterling, D., Tanjasiri, S.P., and Adams-Berger, J. Using Community Indicators to Track and Improve Health and Quality of Life. In D. Easterling, K. Gallagher and D. Lodwick (eds.) Promoting Health at the Community Level. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.
  • Conner, R.F. Developing and Implementing Culturally Competent Evaluation: A Discussion of Multicultural Validity in Two HIV Prevention Programs for Latinos. In M. Thompson-Robinson, R. Hopson and S SenGupta (eds.), In Search of Cultural Competence in Evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 2004, 102, 51-65.
  • Conner, R.F. The Practice and Issues of Program Evaluation: Presentation on the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative. Bilingual (Japanese-English) monograph. Tokyo: Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, 2000.
  • Conner, R.F., and Tanjasiri, S.P. Communities Evaluating Community-Level Interventions: The Development of Community-Based Indicators in the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 1999, 115-136.
  • Conner, R. F., Mishra, S. I., and Magaña, R. A Model for Moving Science into Policy: The Case of AIDS Prevention Research on Migrant Latinos. Research in Social Policy, 1998, 6, 159-186.

Books

  • Fan, H., Conner, R. F., and Villareal, L. P. AIDS: Science and Society. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., Fifth edition: 2007 (new edition in development)
  • Mishra, S. I., Conner, R. F., and Magaña, J. R. (editors) AIDS Crossing Borders: The Spread of HIV among Migrant Latinos. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.
  • Mayne, J., Bemelmans-Videc, M. L., Hudson, J., and Conner, R. (editors) Advancing Public Policy Evaluation; Learning from International Experience. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1992.