Joan Lafrance

Joan LaFrance, EdD is owner of Mekinak Consulting, a management and evaluation service in Seattle, Washington specializing in educational program evaluation, research, and management studies. Mekinak Consulting has a long history of evaluation of programs in tribal colleges and universities, tribal and indigenous communities, and for non-profit organizations. With support from the National Science Foundation through a grant to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Dr. LaFrance conducted the research and co- authored the book AIHEC Indigenous Evaluation Framework: Telling Our Story in Our Place and Time. Currently, she is conducting research on the application of the Indigenous Evaluation Framework in three tribal college communities. Dr. LaFrance is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She received her doctorate at Harvard University, and a master’s degree of public administration from the University of Washington. She was a founding member of the Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation TIG in American Evaluation Association, and believes that traditional indigenous voices and values will make significant contributions to evaluation theory and practice.