Michelle Garred, PhD

Michelle is a global leader in peace program evaluation, with a two-decade track record of facilitating innovative, participatory and culturally attuned learning processes. She specializes in the roles of faith and identity in social change, drawing on senior technical leadership experience at World Vision International and CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. Holding a PhD in Peace Studies from Lancaster University, her key publications include “Change Inside and Out: An Evaluator’s Guide to Outcome Harvesting + Attitude Change” (co-authored with Min Ma) and Making Peace with Faith: The Challenges of Religion and Peacebuilding (co-curated with Mohammed Abu-Nimer). Her working languages are English and Spanish.

Michelle helps partners to maximize the impact of their programs, whether they involve advocating for social justice, bridging relational gaps, or facilitating collaborative problem-solving. The aim is to enhance the contribution of these programs to positive social change so that diverse, multicultural communities can flourish. Recent projects have focused on evaluation and learning within cultural and religious pluralism programs across the USA and Canada.

Intergroup relations are Michelle’s lifelong vocation, with early roots in cross-cultural training, second language education, and faith-based services in the USA and México. She has facilitated multi-ethnic community councils in northern Kosovo/a, and led peace and justice mainstreaming across South and Southeast Asia. Michelle’s innovations have improved practice by shifting power, engaging faith actors in action research to contextualize their own tools, centering marginalized voices in participatory macro-analysis and planning, and advancing the faith- and culturally-responsive evaluation of interreligious action programs. She recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of Peace Catalyst International and a co-chair of the global evaluation hub at the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities. Her volunteer time is currently focused on accompaniment and advocacy with recent immigrants.

After many years as a global nomad, Michelle is now based in metro Seattle, on Coast Salish territory, specifically the lands stolen from her Duwamish, Suquamish, Puyallup and Muckleshoot neighbors. As a white US American woman with a non-visible disability, her learning and unlearning about privilege are currently anchored within this space. She posts periodic reflections on personalized aspects of justice and peace at michellegarred.net.