IC TIG: Meet A Member with Mindelyn Anderson

Please describe your independent consulting practice.

I very much identify as an accidental evaluator, I stumbled into it in that way just using my research skills in service of organizations and communities that I love. And that was really the seed of what is now Mirror Group. 

My first evaluation was while I was in my PhD program with the Refugee Youth Project in Baltimore. I was volunteering with youth after school who had just been through the most horrific experience that any of us can imagine just to help with their transition to the United States. I really admired the organization. I saw there was a lot of heart work a lot of heavy work that they were doing, and noticed that it could lead to staff burnout not because of lack of passion but because there’s so much involved with refugee resettlement and really serving a minor population. And so I said if there’s anything else I can do around here to help. And even before I knew what evaluation was, I knew that my passion was to use research skills in service of community and organizations. I later understood through a fellowship with the Annie E. Casey foundation that that is called evaluation.

I officially established the firm June 5, 2017 as an LLC. Designated as an S corporation. The firm is based in Washington DC, but we serve communities in our immediate area, Maryland, DC, Virginia, but also nationwide through a number of different contracts or partnerships, clients that we have. Yep, based in DC but serving organizations nationally and internationally. We’ve been in existence 2 and a half years now. Our specialty is culturally responsive and equitable evaluation. there has definitely been some steps and stages and journey over the past decade. I’m very happy about where we are now. We’re bringing on awesome new people to join the team, not just as 1099s but as W2s. We have some part-time employees coming in, and I’m just very excited to be continuing this work.

What prompted you to become an independent consultant? How did you get into it? [Why did you decide to work independently?]

Baby steps, there’s kind of a both/and. Even when I decided to get a PhD in Sociology it was because I realized there was this discipline that was studying all the questions I ever had about the world. Why do we have such inequality? Why do some have so much and others so little and they’re in such close proximity with each other? Really understanding what’s happening with different racial groups, and at that time we called stratification. A lot of those curiosities led me to research, and really wanting to use that to help empower communities, and make a change. 

I stumbled my way into evaluation in part because I became disenfranchised with higher ed, I personally didn't find joy in doing the work only in the ivory tower. There are some colleagues that are very good about having their academic work and their public work, and they kind of blend the two, and I didn’t find that space. I wanted to spend more time in community and in organizations, and that’s what helped to make that shift. 

What do you love most about being an evaluator? 

What I love most is that, this is going to sound cliche, but I really am the textbook example of a lifelong learner. I’ve always been curious, there’s always more to learn. So I’m always eager about the world and how it operates, it’s the sociologist in me. I can’t get away from it. So in doing this work, I’m embedded in communities, I am that Jiminy Cricket on the shoulder to organizations as we’re doing process evaluation, I am that mirror to organizations as they’re doing impact evaluation, really wanting to know how they’re moving the needle. How am I engaging with my partners? How are we aligning our work with our mission and values, and vision and strategic plan? In doing this work I’m learning so much about so many communities, people, organizations. So I love it, it’s literally the thing I can wake up in the morning excited to do it and go to sleep at night still thinking about it. 

What's unique about the work you do?

Oftentimes I’m in such an awesome community of practitioners, the way that we work is the work. It’s very equitable, it’s collaborative, it’s participatory, it’s not about ownership of these paradigms and these frameworks and these methods for self, it’s really about equity in practice and not just in name. That’s how we work. That’s literally what we do. So it doesn’t feel that unique in my ecosystem, but I do realize in the broader practice of evaluation, that is unique.  

The core of what we do is because of the research skills we have, we bring that to all evaluation, technical assistance training, facilitation. Everyone that we work with in Mirror Group brings their unique experiences and analytical mind to the work. In some ways perhaps that is unique. We definitely have a collaborative model, where it’s no one-size fits all approach to any given organization or project. We’re always putting together custom teams for exactly what folks need. That’s researcher, evaluator, subject matter expert, change-makers, consultants all coming together to craft what that organization might need.

I consider evaluation a service, and I’m happy to be of service in this way.  Using your gifts and talents to be in service of organizations and not of self, to really making a commitment in a values-based way to make the world a little bit better than when you came in, those are things I’ve been doing my whole life. It’s through the practice of evaluation, I do that now. 

How has being a member of the independent consulting TIG benefitted you and/or your business? 

I found AEA after learning about the organization from the Annie E Casey Foundation in 2015. So, I am a new member to AEA even though I have been doing this work for longer than that. It is just a delight to know that there are others out there that are both evaluators and business owners, entrepreneurs. In many ways those might feel like distinct things for people, but through our TIG and AEA those things come together. All the time. I’m grateful for the TIG, the newsletters, all the updates, the community we have. Just knowing that you’re not alone in figuring this out. Whenever I discover a community or a space that breathes life into me, I like to breathe life into it. So I’m happy to be of any service that I can to this TIG. 

The biggest thing right now is the Masterminds groups, that Tamara and Nina put together. I am having just the best time with those ladies and we meet once a month. We’re noodling on things that we realize are not unique to us, or our particular businesses, but really to what does it mean to be an evaluation entrepreneur or evaluation business owner. So I’m grateful for that, because there’s the craft and practice of what we do. But as a business and as an organization in partnership with so many, to be able to sustain, we have to have those business operations. And no one’s teaching you that anywhere. I have no business formal training background, and so I’m grateful to the TIG for really honing more of those skills and knowledge in the business operations area. 

What tips do you have for balancing work and life?

There’s the lean in approach. There’s the hard shift boundaries approach. There’s the bring your whole self to the work approach, and that’s really more of the Mirror Group way.  It’s how I found myself in this work. So for me it’s kind of part and parcel for what I do because I do feel like my purpose is tied to using these skills to serve others. When I find something that works I really try to use it. Just surrounded by just an awesome team of collaborators and so we use Google Suite, we use Asana, just tools that keep us in communication since we are all geographically dispersed, the work is geographically dispersed, as are we. I always feel very much connected to our team because we’re just a short ping away. 

I block my calendar out. I use Calendly right now to make my schedule available at particular times that still allow me to drop my children off at school and pick them up from school, and do, lots of mommy things and wife things with my husband and 4 kids, but also that allows me the space to be a business owner, to be an evaluator and get those things done. I’m constantly trying to practice a pace of grace. That is something that’s growing when you’re so interested in the work that you want to keep going going going, I love to learn so I’m always in some workshop, on some webinar, reading some book. That can also tire you out. It is going to be nice to have two weeks with no client facing work to rejuvenate to come back refreshed and anew in 2020. There’s always a lot going on, it's a very full life.

What was your childhood dream job?

My little girl dream was to be an international business woman and I thought I was going to be bilingual in Spanish and English and working in emerging markets in Central and Latin America. So very specific for an 8 or 9 year old when I drew myself with a briefcase and a nameplate and sitting at a desk apparently talking to some people off of the page doing the work. It’s intriguing to see 30 years later how close I am to that little girl dream.