Independent evaluation
Washington Park Research & Evaluation, LLC
Historical evaluation; final report issued September 2022; Anticipated 2026-2031
An independent evaluation organization with expertise in rigorous study design, implementation research, participant tracking, fidelity, data analysis, and transparent reporting.
About WPRE
Washington Park Research & Evaluation, LLC (WPRE) is an independent evaluation organization led by principal evaluator Galena K. Rhoades, Ph.D. Its work includes impact and implementation study design, cluster-randomized research, measure selection, human-subjects and institutional-review planning, secure data systems, participant tracking, fidelity and implementation assessment, and analysis of multilevel, longitudinal, and clustered data.
Independent evaluation responsibilities
WPRE’s role is different from program delivery. The evaluator establishes and applies the approved analytic approach, examines how a program was delivered, and reports what the available data do and do not support. Credible evaluation includes favorable findings as well as null, mixed, and unfavorable findings. It also distinguishes participant feedback, implementation evidence, associations, and causal evidence rather than treating them as interchangeable.
Work with Life That Counts
For Life That Counts, WPRE led the final three-year evaluation of the historical Rural Alabama and Montana Project, commonly identified as RAMP. The final report was issued in September 2022. The evaluation included 2,541 entry-survey records and 2,204 exit-survey records. Because the entry and exit records were not matched at the participant level, the relationship between those counts must not be labeled a participant completion rate, retention rate, or matched pre/post result. Public summaries should describe those findings as bounded, descriptive participant feedback and post-program self-report unless a particular measure and method support a more specific characterization.
WPRE may also be identified in approved planning materials for a future rigorous evaluation, but planning does not establish that a project has been funded, initiated, or completed. Any public description of current work must be based on an executed agreement and an active project record.
About the principal evaluator
Galena K. Rhoades, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado, a relationship scientist, and the owner and principal evaluator at Washington Park Research & Evaluation, LLC. She is also a Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver. That academic affiliation is separate from WPRE’s role as an independent evaluation organization and does not make the University of Denver the contracting evaluator for Life that Counts.
Dr. Rhoades earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Puget Sound in 2000, a Master of Arts in psychology from the University of Denver in 2002, and a Ph.D. in clinical child psychology from the University of Denver in 2007. She completed her clinical internship at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey from 2006 to 2007 and has been a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado since 2008. She has served as a Research Professor at the University of Denver since 2018 and as Director of the Institute for Relationship Science since 2020.
Her published profile describes specific training and expertise in evaluation, research design, and statistical analysis. Her research focuses on romantic-relationship formation and the effectiveness of relationship-education programs for youth and adults, and she has more than 100 publications in these areas. Her role in Life that Counts evaluation work is to bring independent research judgment to study design, measurement, implementation analysis, and reporting—not to market the program or guarantee an outcome.