These questions feel especially timely as I look ahead to Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead's keynote at aes25, "Do you prefer to dig deep or free range?' Her invitation to reflect on how we navigate our professional identities — whether as deep specialists or adaptable generalists — comes at a moment when our field is facing rapid change.

To ground my reflections, I revisited the opening chapters of Core Concepts in Evaluation, including one co-authored by Bianca and Khalil Bitar: 'Amending the Architectural Blueprints for Evaluation'. This chapter, alongside others, reminds us that evaluation is not just a technical or methodological pursuit. It's a values-based, ethically informed form of inquiry. As Michael Scriven argues, evaluation is a practice of valuing—one that requires explicit standards, socially meaningful criteria, and a commitment to reasoned, justifiable judgement.

But valuing can't be neutral. It involves choices about what matters, whose voices count, and how we interpret meaning. That makes evaluation a moral practice, not just an intellectual one.

Bianca's keynote will explore how our instincts — whether to dig deep or free range — shape not just our methods, but how we grow, collaborate, and respond to emerging issues like AI. It promises to be thoughtful, engaging, and a powerful call to consider how we each contribute to a thriving evaluation ecosystem. 

• aes25 conference site
  
• Abstract aes25 keynote address by Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead
  
• Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead Linkedin profile
  
• Khalil Bitar Linkedin profile