Staff Bio
Goldie MacDonald, PhD, serves as the Associate Director for Evaluation in the Public Health Infrastructure Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Role at CDC
Dr. MacDonald works closely with internal and external collaborators to advance program evaluation design, implementation, and use across the center and agency. She led similar functions in CDC’s former Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.
Previous experience
Dr. MacDonald provides leadership and trusted counsel on evaluation of key programs nationwide and internal to CDC. Recently, for example, she led or co-led evaluation of electronic case reporting (eCR) in jurisdictions supported by Digital Bridge; formative evaluation of employee perspectives and priorities regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the former CDC Center for Science Epidemiology and Laboratory Science; process evaluation of the National Neurological Conditions Surveillance System (NNCSS); capabilities-based evaluation to support the Public Health Data Modernization Initiative (DMI); equity-focused evaluation of eCR in Florida; and real-time evaluation of employee experiences and needs as CDC established the Public Health Infrastructure Center.
She is an active member of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (JCSEE), the official source for program evaluation standards in North America. Since coming to CDC in 1999, Dr. MacDonald co-led multisite evaluations of pandemic influenza preparedness in 40 countries, Field Epidemiology Training Programs in 10 countries, Steps to a HealthierUS program in 42 communities nationwide; and Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response across Ethiopia. For more than a decade, she taught evaluation theory and practice at regional events in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Dr. MacDonald is lead author of Introduction to Program Evaluation for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. The American Evaluation Association recognized this work with the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award for Government. Dr. MacDonald is a regular contributor to AEA365 and authored three peer-reviewed evaluation checklists released by The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University.