Dr. Heather Goldsworthy has spent her career helping people and organizations perform at their very best. As the new director of Temple University Harrisburg's NEST (Nonprofit Evaluation Services and Training) program, she will be guiding organizations in doing the same to improve the lives of the people and communities they serve.

"I've always been fascinated with how people define problems and come up with solutions to them," said Goldsworthy, whose experiences and expertise range from environmental and social development policy to university-level instruction. "When I moved to Philadelphia, I was particularly interested in jobs that focused on policy development and implementation — what are the real world outcomes when policies are enacted?"

That particular interest in problem-solving has been at the core of her professional path, Goldsworthy said.

"All of my work has had a common theme — understanding how people define problems, how they come up with solutions to solve problems, and whether or not those solutions work," she said. "NEST, at its heart, provides services for people who truly care about how their programs are working, and how they are impacting their communities."

An expert in qualitative research, Goldsworthy comes to Temple with extensive experience designing, executing, managing, and supporting program evaluations and organizational analysis.

Prior to coming to Temple, Goldsworthy was a research specialist for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania. At CPRE, she served as the qualitative lead on several multi-year, multi-site evaluations related to educational programs and policies across the United States.

From 2002 to 2010, she did research and taught across multiple disciplines at the University of California - Irvine, where she completed her doctoral degree in Social Ecology — with emphases on feminist theory and environmental analysis — in 2010. She has additionally worked with nonprofit and NGO (non-governmental organization) aid and development organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Uganda, studying the relationships between organizational processes and program outcomes.

"Dr. Goldsworthy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Temple Harrisburg NEST program," said Link Martin, Director of Temple University Harrisburg. "It's a rare opportunity to recruit someone like Dr. Goldsworthy who possesses the leadership skills, research expertise and the commitment to improve communities through the empowerment of nonprofits. She will assist the NEST team in building on its past successes."

The NEST program powers positive change in neighborhoods and communities by giving nonprofit organizations the tools to perform at peak levels across the board.

"Nonprofits are recognized as the backbone of our communities, providing critical services and resources to people and places in need of champions," Martin said. "Nonprofit organizations that partner with NEST are better suited to effectively serve their communities through research, training, and implementing best practices in the field."

Community champions, Goldsworthy said, need to know what people care about; "what are their biggest concerns?"

"A champion is able to say out loud what the problem is and what the solution is. But they are also able to 'take the hit' for a cause and defend their position," she said. "With NEST we want to make sure community leaders have all of the tools and all of the information they need to feel empowered. They need to able to answer the hard questions and negotiate with other points of view." 

NEST's services are customized to meet the specific needs of each agency, community group or organization. Services include program evaluation, needs assessments, strategic planning, continuing education and training, and database applications to make the most informed decisions.

"Through NEST, we can train people within organizations to do their own evaluations. They are able to gather information and assess their own performance," she said. "Nonprofits need to be able to demonstrate their impact for funding and other support. Having solid data to demonstrate their importance is essential."

With her educational and professional background, Goldsworthy is in the unique position of having experience in all of the services that NEST provides.

"Often organizations assume that when an outside organization is performing evaluations, they are only interested in fault-finding. With NEST, the organizations come to us, so we get to use our skills to help people that want our help and expertise," she said. "We want to determine just what outcomes a given organization is hoping for. How is their program working? If there are areas where their services aren't working, what can they do to improve? We aren't necessarily looking for faults. We're looking for opportunities to grow and improve."

The goal of NEST is to provide nonprofit and government organizations focused on social service "information that they need to best serve their communities and constituents," said Goldsworthy, who will additionally be teaching an online course in Evaluation and Measurement as part of Temple's International Nonprofit Training and Leadership program, offered jointly by Temple Harrisburg and Temple Japan.

"Nonprofits are selfless by nature — they take what they learn back to their communities to improve lives," she said. "The goal of our evaluations is to help our partners gain a better understanding of their own organizations and how they are impacting their communities."

Goldsworthy will be dividing her time between Temple University Harrisburg and Temple University Ambler. At Ambler, she and NEST will be working with the National Park Service Law Enforcement Training Center to evaluate a new curriculum developed for all seven of their academies across the nation, including Temple University Ambler. The Park Service's Law Enforcement Training Center is the accrediting body for the Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Program offered at Ambler Campus, an essential part of Temple and the Park Service's ProRanger Philadelphia program.

"Program evaluation for any organization is enormously important," she said. "I think of program evaluation as research and development — big corporations conduct 'R & D' all of the time to ensure they are reaching their target market. It should be the same with nonprofits. It's the only way they can determine what a given community needs and how best to serve them."

For additional information about the NEST program, contact 717-232-6400 or nest@temple.edu or visit the NEST website.