Meet our people – Greta Westermann
Find out more about our staff, their roles, and what their day to day looks like!
What was your path into evaluation/ARTD?
I think similar to most of my colleagues I did not dream of a career as an evaluator but rather stumbled into it. I started my working career as a theatre nurse in Germany. I then studied a Bachelor of Public Health, as I wanted to be involved in shaping and improving the healthcare system.
During my degree we had the opportunity to complete a 6-month internship and I found myself working in an evaluation office for a local health district in Auckland, New Zealand. This experience sparked my interest in evaluation and gathering and using qualitative data to inform policy and systems. After moving to Australia and some time as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Disability Studies, working with people with intellectual disability of inclusive research projects, I heard about ARTD and joined as a Consultant in 2022.
Can you sum up your role as a Consultant in one sentence?
As a Consultant I translate information that we have gathered from documents, interviews and other data sources into a format that allows us to answer our clients’ questions and provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions about their programs.
What was the best opportunity/ your proudest work moment since starting at ARTD?
My proudest moments are when I see a story emerge after spending hours making sense of data from different sources. It’s even better when we share these findings with our clients and it’s clear we’ve helped answer their questions about their initiative.
What is your favourite thing about working at ARTD?
I love doing interviews with program participants. There is something so special about hearing their firsthand experience of a program, how it has helped them and what could be improved. I am grateful for the people who choose to share such valuable information with us.
What does a ‘day in the life’ look like for you?
Every day is different but most of them will contain team and project meetings, interviews, qualitative data analysis, sensemaking and report writing.
What’s something your clients may not know about you?
I was born and grew up in Germany and moved to Australia 5 years ago to be with my Australian husband. We have a daughter who is the most amazing, funny and energetic little girl. As a family we love spending time outdoors and travel a lot to see family and friends overseas.
