Michèle Banner

President

Michèle is the associate director of Crimson Research, a program evaluation and research group at New Mexico State University, and a senior research scientist in the Department of Public Health Sciences at NMSU. She has 25 years of experience as a researcher and evaluator in both the private sector and academia across a variety of disciplines.  Most recently she has led several grants and contracts in the areas of economic justice, mental health awareness, and prevention and health promotion, as well as varied research and evaluation efforts for the Doña Ana County Health and Human Services Department.  She has conducted evaluations in the southern NM border region, western NM, Juárez, El Paso, and nationally, maintaining a focus on health and social disparities within marginalized populations and using equitable, culturally-responsive research methods. Her doctorate and master’s degrees are in social psychology.

(Vacant)

President-elect

(Vacant)

Co-VP of Communications

(Vacant)

Co-VP of Communications

Germain Degardin

VP of Finance

Originally from France, Germain moved to New Mexico in 2011 to attend school and play for the men’s tennis team at New Mexico State Univerity. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in business, Germain was a tennis coach in New York. This experience ignited his passion for teaching and led him to come back to NMSU to pursue a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a secondary education teaching license. Once graduated, Germain was an educational researcher and program evaluator for the Southwest Outreach Academic Research (SOAR) evaluation and policy center at NMSU. Since July 2022, Germain has been a science research manager for Project ECHO education programs at University of New Mexico.

Morgan Occhino

Co-VP of Membership

Morgan Occhino has experience in evaluation, social science research, and clinical health research and has worked in academia, the nonprofit sector, and private industry. Her background includes program evaluation, research design, implementation, data analysis, and dissemination. Morgan has experience managing large federal contracts and grants with topics including COVID-19, chronic conditions, behavioral health, provider practice, and social determinates of health. Currently, Morgan is a Research Analyst at Indiana University, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, conducting research combining epidemiological and community based methods to determine how the cultural, social, structural, and political environments in correctional facilities impact health among people incarcerated. 

Saumitra SenGupta

Co-VP of Membership

Sierra Fernandez

Co-VP of Programs

Scarlett Kingsley

Co-VP of Programs

Scarlett Kingsley, State Specialist for Cooperative Extension Evaluation and Research at Oklahoma State University, has a passion for applying creative evaluation methodologies to her work to make the evaluation process more equitable and participatory. She is pursuing her PhD in Social Foundations and Qualitative Inquiry at OK State, and is a former American Evaluation Association Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Scholar. When not busy with evaluation or her PhD, Scarlett can be found making art, curating her collection of antique typewriters, and spending time with her animal companions.

Ashley Love

Co-VP of Programs