The Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Since its founding in 1949, the Institute has been driving change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most critical challenges facing communities in the United States and around the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

To achieve our mission of a more free, just, and equitable society, we commit to working proactively to advance the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our myriad endeavors such as the recruitment, compensation, training, and advancement of staff. The best people-serving institutions make this commitment, and we seek to be a leader in the ways that we do so and learn from others. Visit our to learn more about our commitment and recent actions taken toward building and nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment.

Program Description:

The Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program (CEP) aims to identify and replicate practices and policies that significantly improve college student outcomes. Through the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence, the American Talent Initiative, our portfolio of projects to improve transfer outcomes, and other highly visible national projects, the College Excellence Program works to improve colleges' capacity to achieve high levels of success for all students, and to eliminate disparities in postsecondary attainment and social mobility for students from low-income backgrounds and historically marginalized and underserved groups. Our work focuses on improving higher education institutions in six areas: ensuring high-quality learning, increasing completion rates, improving community college transfer and baccalaureate attainment, increasing post-college employment and earnings outcomes, ensuring strong access to college credentials of value, and achieving equity in outcomes across all domains. We advance those outcomes by quantitatively identifying and publicly elevating those colleges achieving excellent and equitable outcomes, conducting research on how those outcomes were accomplished, publishing reports and practical tools to support college leaders and practitioners interested in replicating effective practices, and conducting professional development programs for presidents, senior teams, board of trustees, and others. Learn more about our work at

Basic Function:

The Evaluator is part of a research team aiming to advance CEP's mission. The Evaluator contributes to the design of - and is responsible for executing - quantitative and qualitative evaluations and assessments of CEP projects and programs for formative evaluation, summative evaluation, and case-making for multiple audiences. They will collaborate with project leads and CEP's senior team to develop a common understanding of theories of change, develop evaluative goals for projects, guide program/project improvements, and support the development of case-making material based on insights from formative and summative assessments.

The ideal candidate will thrive in this role if they are committed to maximizing field impact; resourceful in applying and adapting evaluative methods to innovative projects that are likely to evolve; have strong quantitative and qualitative analysis capacity; enjoy being behind the scenes conducting high-impact analyses, but can engage with internal executive leadership regularly; can develop high-quality presentations and memoranda; are highly collaborative, working well with internal and external partners; and prioritize mission over individual ownership.

This position reports directly to the Director of Research & Innovation. The salary range for this position is $85,000 - $95,000. This is a hybrid position, with a minimum of two days per week in the DC office.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and implement evaluation tools for CEP projects for multiple audiences.
• Support CEP project teams in developing evaluation plans rooted in project goals and theories of change.
• Analyze and synthesize evaluation results.
• Develop presentations and other deliverables that summarize program assessment (and other research) findings that make cases for reform to be used in leadership meetings, funder reports, program curricula, presentations, and other contexts.
• Contributes to other research and analytic needs of the program.
• Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Education, and Experience

• BA degree required; advanced degree welcomed.
• At least five years of work experience applying evidence to evaluate impact and make cases, working formally as an evaluator or in another position requiring evaluation.
• Experience with research interviews, Excel, Stata, and/or Tableau, a plus
• Ability to produce solid written or analytic products that meet the needs of identified audiences; proactively receive and incorporate feedback on these products.
• Ability to manage multiple processes at once, with increased scale and complexity; ability to design work plans for new processes or projects.

To apply:

All interested applicants must submit the following:

1. A one-page cover letter. CEP prefers cover letters that describe what motivates you and how you understand and relate to our mission, rather than a narrative version of your resume. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.
2. Resume/CV.
3. Two writing samples that you created without help or editing from others.

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

The Aspen Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all District and federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected veteran or disabled status and will not be discriminated against.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation regarding the accessibility of our website, a modification or adjustment of the job application or interview process due to a disability, contact or call (202) 736-5800.