About

Thomas G. Archibald is an Associate Professor and the Executive Director of the Center for International Research, Education, and Development (CIRED) at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on program planning and evaluation in non-formal education, with particular emphasis on evaluation capacity building, research-practice integration, and participatory and collaborative research and evaluation. His work is informed by issues of power, participation, epistemology, and methodology, and he explores approaches to strengthening the capacity of non-formal educators to evaluate their programs using various evaluation paradigms. As the Executive Director of CIRED, he leverages his network and expertise to foster partnerships and manage multidisciplinary projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, supporting Virginia Tech’s international mission and global impact. His scholarly contributions include editing a book on ethical evaluation practice and publishing extensively in peer-reviewed journals on topics related to evaluation, community-based education, and international development.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Marketing
• Pedagogy
• Law
• Biology
• Advertising
• Process management
• Engineering ethics
• Business
• Management science
• Engineering
• Food science
• Mathematics
• Knowledge management

Selected publications

• Developing Disability-Inclusive Programs to Empower Farmers: Lessons Learned from AgrAbility

  Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education · 2025-02-14

  articleOpen access

  Disabilities have profound effects on farm households. Establishing disability-inclusive programs will improve the well-being and quality of life of farmers with disabilities and their communities; in turn, this will accelerate efforts to achieve social justice. A qualitative approach was employed to identify and aggregate essential strategies used by seven AgrAbility states for developing disability-inclusive programs and to explore how social, political, and ethical stances are addressed or enacted within AgrAbility's planning processes. The findings laid a foundational framework that could serve as a catalyst to answer the following question: 'To what extent can the social, political, and ethical domains be addressed or enacted within the development of programs serving farmers with disabilities?' The framework, based on AgrAbility states' strategies, can serve as an initial source for other extension agents and program planners in U.S. states and countries that do not have AgrAbility but are interested in developing disability-inclusive programs.

  PublisherDOI

• A Systematic Approach to Community of Practice Evaluation using the Value Creation Framework

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Research on Evaluator Education and Training: Conceptual and Practical Bounds for a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

  New Directions for Evaluation · 2025-09-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT In this article, we contextualize research on evaluator education and training (RoEET) within its historical context by grounding it in a RoE framework posed by Mark and a landscape analysis by King and Ayoo. We then link RoEET with contemporary views on philosophical, applied, and empirical dimensions of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), discipline‐based educational research (DBER), and critical adult education to offer clarity and specificity on potential conceptual and practical bounds for this area of study. Considerations for scholars and practitioners alike are detailed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Capital Requirements and Risk-Taking in Community Banks: The Role of Market Power

  Mendeley Data · 2025-12-30

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  This replication package contains all the data, code, and instructions for the article "Capital Requirements and Risk-Taking in Community Banks: The Role of Market Power".The package is designed for use with Stata.

  PublisherDOI

• Capital Requirements and Risk-Taking in Community Banks: The Role of Market Power

  Mendeley Data · 2025-12-30

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  This replication package contains all the data, code, and instructions for the article "Capital Requirements and Risk-Taking in Community Banks: The Role of Market Power".The package is designed for use with Stata.

  PublisherDOI

• Evaluative thinking

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-06-12 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  A perennial theoretical tension in the field of evaluation pertains to whether, and how, evaluation is distinct from other forms of thought and practice. One way to explore what makes it ostensibly different and potentially special is by considering the notion of “evaluative thinking,” which is both a fundamental philosophical concept at the heart of evaluation, and an approach to democratizing evaluation, to unleash the power of inquiry for social change. Evaluative thinking is motivated by an attitude of inquisitiveness and a belief in the value of evidence, and involves identifying assumptions, posing thoughtful questions, marshaling evidence to make value judgments, pursuing deeper understanding, and making informed decisions in preparation for action in a contextualized, logically-aligned, transparent fashion. In this chapter, I present a brief history of evaluative thinking, review some theoretical and practical paradoxes related to it, and suggest why evaluative thinking is key to shaping the field’s future.

  PublisherDOI

• Character-Minded Evaluation

  2024-02-14

  book-chapterSenior author

  Character-minded evaluation is evaluation work that intentionally promotes and draws on the power of character virtues and practical wisdom to evaluate high-quality programs. High-quality evaluation is well-aligned, beneficial, sustainable, democratic, and culturally responsive. Character virtues and practical wisdom contribute to good evaluation and good evaluation practices contribute to character virtues and practical wisdom in a bi-directional relationship. In this chapter, we adapt the Jubilee Centre's Framework for Character Education in Schools with a Relational Systems Evaluation approach to examine the bi-directional role of the building blocks of character and practical wisdom on evaluation. We discuss the definition and application of civic virtues (citizenship, community awareness, and service), moral virtues (empathy, intellectual humility, and respect), intellectual virtues (evaluative thinking, reflection, reasoning, and judgment), and performance virtues (confidence, perseverance, and teamwork). The role of character in evaluation capacity building is also discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• A graph-based algorithm for the non-stationary lot-sizing problem with penalty scheme

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-10-30 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This paper introduces a graph-based algorithm for solving single-item, single-location inventory lot-sizing problems under non-stationary stochastic demand using the $(R_t, S_t)$ policy and a penalty cost scheme. The proposed method relaxes the original mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model by eliminating non-negative order quantity constraints and formulating it as a shortest-path problem on a weighted directed acyclic graph. A repetitive augmentation procedure is proposed to resolve any infeasibility in the solution. This procedure consists of three stages: (1) filtration, (2) repeated augmentation by redirecting, reconnecting, and duplicating between newly introduced and existing nodes to adjust the graph and eliminate negative replenishment orders, and (3) re-optimising. The effectiveness and computational efficiency of the proposed approach are assessed through extensive experiments on 1,620 test instances across various demand patterns and parameter settings. The results show that 195 instances required augmentation, mainly those with high penalty costs, low fixed ordering costs, large demand variability, and extended planning horizons. The efficiency of the algorithm for instances with extended planning horizon scenarios demonstrates its suitability for use in real-world scenarios.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Protocol for Participatory Data Use

  American Journal of Evaluation · 2024-03-22 · 2 citations

  article

  The purpose of this article is to offer both theoretical and practical support to evaluation professionals preparing to facilitate the utilization phase of evaluation with a program or organization team. The Systems Evaluation Protocol for Participatory Data Use (SEPPDU) presented here is rooted in a partnership approach to evaluation and is therefore designed as a way to structure conversations and facilitate thinking around data interpretation and decision making. The SEPPDU is presented in three main parts: (1) summarizing evaluation results, (2) interpreting results, and (3) planning for action. This article describes specific and practical tips for the facilitation of each part based on field experience in a variety of settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Co‐production in action: Navigating the research‐to‐implementation space in wildlife conservation through a Community of Practice

  Conservation Science and Practice · 2024-10-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Effective conservation practices require addressing the divide between research and implementation. Co‐production, which emphasizes collaboration and diverse knowledge exchange, is increasingly recognized as valuable in conservation to address this challenge, yet empirical insights remain limited. This case study explores using a Community of Practice (CoP) as an avenue for facilitating co‐production in shorebird conservation. Centering researchers and practitioners within implementation initiatives, we evaluate factors enabling a successful CoP and barriers hindering members' experiences. Capacity emerged as the predominant barrier, while the leading factors contributing to CoP success were having a dedicated space to support labor division, relationship building, and informal learning among CoP members. Leveraging our evaluation insights, we offer practical recommendations for structuring a CoP to optimize these benefits and advance the integration of CoPs and co‐production principles in conservation practice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kurt Baum

  30 shared

• Jennifer Brown Urban

  Montclair State University

  12 shared

• Jane Buckley

  11 shared

• Simon G. Bott

  9 shared

• Alan P. Marchand

  9 shared

• R. Gilardi

  8 shared

• Adam M. Aguiar

  7 shared

• D. TZENG

  Whitney Museum of American Art

  7 shared

Education

• PhD, Education

  Cornell University

  2013

• BS, Animal Science

  Cornell University

  2002