Emily Gates
Associate Professor of Evaluation at Boston College
Background
Emily Gates is an associate professor at Boston College. Her work focuses on the role of evaluation in designing, implementing, and adapting interventions to address complex problems and foster systemic change. She has published over 30 articles and chapters and co-authored two books: Evaluating and Valuing in Social Research (2021) and Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change (2025). In 2023, Emily received the American Evaluation Association's Promising New Evaluator Award. She is based in Boston, MA, USA, and on sabbatical in Australia and New Zealand from September 2026 through May 2027.
At the School of System Change
Emily is a facilitator on Evaluating Systemic Change with Pablo Vidueira, part of the summer 2026 Seedling Series: short courses supporting changemakers to embrace complexity through discovering the diversity of systemic approaches and practitioners. In the 2025 Seedling Series, she facilitated Methodological Bricolage for Evaluating Systems Change with Marina Apgar.
"Systemic change turns evaluation into a creative partnership in which evaluators join early and continuously with funders, practitioners, and communities to shape the value of change efforts as they grow."
