Meet our people – Leah Carroll
Find out more about our staff, their roles, and what their day to day looks like!
What was your path into evaluation/ARTD?
My journey to evaluation was not clear-cut. If you had asked me two years ago what evaluation was, I wouldn’t have been able to give you an exact answer. At that time, I was working in marketing, where I found myself drawn to the analytical part of my role. I would spend 3 months of the year analysing fundraising campaigns to understand what went well, what could have been better, and what we could do to improve the following year. In hindsight, they were questions we often ask in evaluations. During this time, I wondered how I could do this kind of work all year round. I decided to take a leap of faith and enrol in a master’s degree specialising in social research and see where that took me. On one of my peruses through job boards, I stumbled upon a position at ARTD. Reading the job description was a lightbulb moment for me, and I realised this was exactly the kind of role I had been searching for. I applied and was fortunate enough to land the position, and I can now confidently say I’m glad I took the leap across into evaluation.
Can you sum up your role as a Consultant in one sentence?
In a nutshell, much of my role is laying the groundwork for project success by planning, organising, collecting, preparing and synthesising data to inform evaluations.
What was the best opportunity/ your proudest work moment since starting at ARTD?
At the start of the year, I decided that I wanted to start building more quantitative research skills. The stars aligned because ARTD was running an introductory course into quantitative data analysis skills. It was a great opportunity to take the plunge into R Studio and begin the journey of developing a completely new skillset. Learning a programming language has been on my professional bucket list for a little while, but it was overwhelming to know where to even start. By the end of the course, I had learnt enough code to produce a mini report completely in R with beautiful graphs and tables to boot! Taking that first step was challenging, but I’m excited to continue growing in this area.
What is your favourite thing about working at ARTD?
I learn something new every day. Evaluation is incredibly diverse in both subject matter and methodologies, which allows for professional development in numerous directions. Working alongside a team of colleagues with diverse backgrounds and skill sets ensures that I have a large pool of expertise to draw and learn from. Everyone in the team is always willing to share their knowledge and experience with others.
What does a ‘day in the life’ look like for you?
I am a planner, so generally, I start my day by reviewing my to-do list and emails to work out what my priorities for that day are. After I have decided what I want to achieve for that day, I tend to block out time to complete all my tasks. What those tasks are can vary a lot. I might spend a morning creating an analysis framework, followed by some coding in NVivo. Lunch might be a delicious ARTD office lunch where I chat with a co-worker about their interesting new projects. Finally, I might round off the day by spending an afternoon out of the office completing stakeholder interviews or attending a conference.
What’s something your clients may not know about you?
My hobby is trying hobbies but never for long enough to master them. I have a graveyard of activity paraphernalia that includes a watercolour paint set, a snorkel, quick-dry clay, embroidery hoops, a yoga mat, a surfboard, a calligraphy set and even a skateboard (scaped knees as an adult quickly ended that pursuit.)
