Angela H. Taylor

Bird House, room 205
Tel.: (804) 828-6896
E-mail: ahtaylor@vcu.edu

Specialty Areas: Adolescence, Evaluation, Community Based Research, Nonprofit Management & Organizations, Working with Community Organizations

Biographical Sketch

I completed my Ph.D. here at VCU in the Center for Public Policy. My concentration is research methods and evaluation. My dissertation is A Comparison of Outcome Evaluation Efforts for the Virginia Department of Health's Adolescent Sexual Health Initiatives. I completed my coursework for my MPA here at VCU concentration on nonprofit management. I have taught research methods here at VCU as well as undergraduate political science courses.

I joined the Department of Sociology after working for four years with the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory here at VCU as a Senior Research Associate. While at SERL I directed projects involving evaluation of adolescent youth and risk behaviors, compiled evaluation plans, and concentrated my work on process/impact/program/outcome evaluation. It was though the experience at SERL that I chose my dissertation topic using evaluation and case study method. The area of methods I enjoy most is qualitative work and I am using this methods for my dissertation. I am planning on presenting my final defense in October 2004.

I have lived and worked in Richmond since 1993 when I returned to VCU to complete my BA in Political Science. My original plan was to attend law school and practice in the corporate world. However, the lure of being involved in community based research and programs lead me down a different path.

Although I have greatly enjoyed concentrating solely on research, I am delighted to be in the classroom and hope to increase applied research both in the Department of Sociology and at the University. My main focus for the Department of Sociology is to increase our research and evaluation by engaging in collaboration throughout the University and with federal, state, and local funding sources.