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We are delighted to announce that Howard S. Bloom of MDRC has been selected to receive the 2010 Peter H. Rossi Award for Contributions to the Theory or Practice of Program Evaluation. (To read his acceptance remarks, please click here.)

Howard Bloom is Chief Social Scientist at MDRC, formerly the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. He leads MDRC's efforts in the development of experimental and quasi-experimental methods for estimating program impacts -- working closely with staff to build these methods into their research.

Before joining MDRC in 1999, Bloom taught at both Harvard University and New York University, where he was also the director of the doctoral program at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Bloom is the author or editor of numerous articles, project reports, and books, including Learning More from Social Experiments: Evolving Analytic Approaches (2006). Well known as both an innovator in evaluation methodology as well as a pragmatic practitioner, he has been the principal investigator of four major randomized experiments: the National Training Partnership Act study, a 20,000-person evaluation conducted in sixteen U.S. cities; the Earnings Supplement Project, an 8,000-person study conducted in five Canadian cities; the Texas Displaced Worker Study; and the Delaware Displaced Worker Study.

In the words of one of Bloom's nominators:

     "I have often wondered which aspects of his approach make Howard such an effective teacher and mentor. Other scholars I have worked with share his enthusiasm, his intelligence, and his commitment to the work of program evaluation. Many have strong communication skills like he does. Recently I have become convinced that what really distinguishes Howard's approach is his need to fundamentally understand all the issues he engages with.

     "He insists on discovering for himself why certain approaches work, whether they are indeed the best ones to use, and how they can be improved or adapted to new circumstances and projects. It is this commitment to discovery and deep understanding that energizes new researchers, builds new methods, and enables our field to continue to grow and develop. This is why our field needs leaders like Howard."

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