Matt Birnbaum holds a PhD in regional planning and has been in the evaluation profession for more than 25 years.

During that time span he has worked in academic, non-profit, public and private sector on a wide array of issues, including social services, economic and community development, cultural institutions, transportation, and biodiversity conservation.

Prior to his current position at the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the federal government, he worked as the first evaluation officer for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation from 2004 to 2010.

While there, he led the development of a comprehensive evaluation and monitoring system at NFWF that blended assessments of individual projects grants with analysis of larger grant programs and multi-partner initiatives. He is one of the co-founders of the Environmental Evaluators Network, now a global entity with annual meetings in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

He has published dozens of manuscripts, including a special edited volume on methodological challenges in environmental program evaluation published in the summer 2010 issue of New Directions in Evaluation as well as another special edited volume on evaluation of environmental education efforts that appeared in the fall 2010 issue of Program Evaluation and Planning. Residing in Washington, DC, Matt can frequently be found away from the office, lost on rural back roads on his bicycle.