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The Life and Legacy of Dr. Hazel Symonette

Hazel Symonette

A Universities of Wisconsin institution unto herself

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“Onward and upward for The Greater Good — in spite of whatever.”
Dr. Hazel Symonette, Changemaker

Hazel’s Story

For over 50 years, Dr. Hazel Symonette has blazed trails for students, staff, and faculty across the Universities of Wisconsin, making significant contributions to a number of fields – from culturally responsive and equity-enabling evaluation, to hip-hop education and student services.

Dr. Symonette’s work uses assessment and evaluation as participant-centered self-diagnostic resources for continuous improvement, developmental innovation, and strategic image management. She moves this agenda forward through various capacity-building strategies using multi-level assessment/evaluation processes to advance a diversity-grounded and equity-minded personal transformation, organizational development and social justice change agenda. That work undergirds her long-standing involvement in creating and sustaining authentically inclusive and vibrantly responsive teaching, learning, living, and working environments that are conducive to success for all. Her work draws on social justice and systemic change research to create meaningful and life-changing interactions among students, faculty, staff and administrators.

The cross-campus/cross-role incubators for this work were the UW Excellence through Diversity Institute (2002-2009) and the Student Success Institute (2010-2017). Both were year-long weekly communities of practice organized around mainstreaming assessment and evaluation in the service of diversity, equity, inclusive excellence and social justice for students, faculty, staff and administrators.

Dr. Symonette is very active within the professional evaluation community. She has served on the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Board of Directors, as Co-Chair of AEA’s Building Diversity Initiative and the Multi-Ethnic Issues in Evaluation Topical Interest Group, and on many other progressive change initiatives. Currently, she serves on the AEA Task Force on Evaluator Competencies. Since 2008, she has also served on the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation – initially as AEA’s Representative and now as an At-Large member. Hazel is an active Fellow within the University of Wisconsin Teaching Academy.

Hazel’s Teachings

Articles, Books, and Chapters

Triana, C., Bowman, A., Bowman, N., Davis, J. D., Forbes, J., Fuller, R., Good, A., Hernandez, A., Hook, T., Reeves, M., Rodriguez-Escutia, Y., Symonette, H., Westaby, K. A.,  & Williams, T. (2023). Creating collaborative spaces to practice praxis. New Directions for Evaluation, 2023(177), 123-134.

Symonette, H., Miller, R. L., & Barela, E. (2020). Power, privilege, and competence: Using the 2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies to shape socially just evaluation practice. New Directions for Evaluation, 2020(168), 117-132.

Symonette, H. (2015). Culturally responsive evaluation as a resource for helpful-help. In S. Hood, R.Hopson, & H. Frierson (Eds.), Continuing the journey to reposition culture and cultural context in evaluation theory and practice (pp. 109-130). Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Symonette, H., Mertens, D. M., & Hopson, R. (2014). The development of a diversity initiative: Framework for the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program. New Directions for Evaluation, 2014(143), 9-22.

Symonette, H. (2008). Cultivating self as responsive instrument. Handbook of social research ethics, 279-294.

Symonette, H. (2008). Cultivating Generative Connections, Commitment, and Engagement among Campus Constituencies: A Practice Brief Based on BEAMS Project Outcomes. Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Symonette, H. (2004). Walking pathways toward becoming a culturally competent evaluator: Boundaries, borderlands, and border crossings. New Directions for Evaluation, 2004(102), 95-109.

Symonette, H. (1996). Campus strategies: Effective evaluation of a strategic plan for multicultural diversity. Assessment Update, 8(4), 9-14.

Symonette, H. L. (1991). Attaining occupational licensure: The final hurdle to professional nursing practice. The University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Symonette, H. L. (1981). Does type of college attended matter?: decomposing the college-earnings association (Vol. 82, No. 19). University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Blogs


Connecting the Intra/Inter/Structural Week: Using Our Evaluator Competencies to Live-Into Socially Just Evaluation Praxis: Activating Self-in-Context at Multiple Levels–Intrapersonal * Interpersonal * Systemic – July 13, 2021

Competencies Task Force Week: Hazel Symonette and Sandra Ayoo on the Interpersonal Domain – December 9, 2016

Hazel sitting on a stage speaking into a microphone.

Legacy and Impact

To celebrate Hazel’s unmatched energy and meaningful contributions, CREA created the Dr. Hazel Symonette Award for Leadership in Reflexive Evaluation Practice. This national honor ensures her framework will continue to guide and uplift the next generation of evaluators.

Read more about the award

Hazelisms: Words to Live By

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“I am unapologetically a ‘boundary-spanning’ SocialJustice PeaceWarrior ever striving to responsively and responsibly Discern and Engage relevant ‘Boundaries, Borderlands and Border-Crossings’ for ^The Greater Good^—in spite of whatever!”
Portrait of Hazel Symonette.
“Airspace, Mindspace, Spiritspace are precious and rare. Let us not cannibalize and pollute them with non-productive retaliations & recriminations.”
Hazel talking in an interview.
“Rising UP with gracious GRATITUDE to have lived long enough to witness & experience ‘Harvesting’—in spite of whatever!!! Such BEs life.”
“Speak into the listening.”
Hazel standing next to a chair of a student union during a presentation.
“Activate your best self to meaningfully engage across boundaries.”
“I am still reeling a bit after so long ‘coloring outside conventional canon lines’.”
Hazel talking with an advisor.
“In whose name and in whose best interest?”
“We have to constantly calibrate our self in context as a responsive and responsible instrument.”
Student interviewing Hazel while sitting on a couch facing each other.

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