Ross F. Conner

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.