Michael Quinn Patton

Michael Patton is a Meridian Affiliate based in Minnesota. He brings 50 years of evaluation experience to his work at Meridian. He is currently working with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food on its theory of transformation and global systems change evaluation.

Michael is dedicated to improving human effectiveness and results. He uses a variety of evaluation and research methods, with a special focus on mixed methods design and analysis. He has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, and local levels, and across philanthropic, government, not-for-profit, and private sectors. He is a generalist working in diverse issue areas. He is the author of eight evaluation books. His latest books are Principles-Focused Evaluation, Facilitating Evaluation, and Blue Marble Evaluation: Global Systems Transformations.

Michael has hiked extensively in the Grand Canyon and written a book about those experiences entitled Grand Canyon Celebration (1999). He is engaged in prairie restoration, bee keeping, and establishing Monarch butterfly habitat on nine acres in Northern Minnesota.

As a sociologist, I have long been instructed by the Thomas Theorem that “what is perceived as real is real in its consequences.” Helping people and organizations reality-test their perceptions—and the consequences of their perceptions—is at the core of my evaluation practice.