Biography

John Stevenson received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974, with a concentration in Personality Psychology. He has served on the faculty in the Psychology Department at the University of Rhode Island since then, and is now a Professor Emeritus. His service to the department has included roles as Director of Graduate Studies in the department’s doctoral program in Behavioral Science and as Department Chair. He also held a long-term appointment in the Brown University Division of Biology and Medicine through his affiliation with the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. His scholarly interests have focused on program evaluation, initiated in a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation in 1977-78. Early research evaluated mental health treatment programs in psychiatric contexts, and the training of mental health service providers. Subsequently he co-founded the Community Research and Services Team at the University of Rhode Island to study and support community prevention efforts in the areas of alcohol, tobacco, and other substance abuse. He has been a lead investigator on numerous state and federal grants, published extensively in these areas, directed the research of master’s and doctoral students, and is known for his work on evaluation capacity-building in community agencies and coalitions. His current research applies his background in program evaluation to NIH-funded work in two areas, the training component of the URI STEEP Superfund research project and the Tracking and Evaluation Core in the Rhode Island Clinical and Translational Research ADVANCE project. Recently he has also linked his program evaluation expertise to another professional passion, college teaching, and worked to study and promote student learning outcomes assessment at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He served for three years as the first Coordinator for Graduate Program Assessment at URI, under the auspices of the Dean of the Graduate School. His University service has reflected his commitment to the teaching-learning process, with leadership roles on the University College and General Education Committee (chair twice), the Basic Liberal Studies Committee, the Subcommittee on Assessment of General Education (founding co-chair), and the Learning Outcomes Oversight Committee (first chair). He was a founding member of the Evaluation Research Society and later the American Evaluation Association, in which he has held several posts including first co-director of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Topical Interest Group (now the Behavioral Health TIG).