Vivien AhrensGraduate Student

I study the assumptions and values underlying program evaluation and how they shape public policy, funding and programming decisions in the U.S. nonprofit sector. In particular, I focus on after-school programs and other informal learning spaces. Through my work, I aim to leverage evaluation beyond mere accountability mechanisms to function as a vehicle for participation, reflection and learning.

Before joining the School of Human Ecology, I worked as youth program coordinator with Centro Hispano of Dane County and collaborated with their Youth Evaluation Team to explore students’ perspectives on their after-school programs.

I earned a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. During this time, I spent a year at the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil studying museology and social sciences. For my master’s thesis, I collaborated with the Projeto Ecomuseu São Jose Dos Campos, a community project that uses museological concepts to give value to their neighborhood’s shared spaces, memories and skills through qualitative participatory interviews.

I have been a lecturer for CSCS 345 “Evaluation and Planning for Community and Nonprofit Organizations” and a teaching assistant for COUN PSY 620 “Esperanza: Community-Engaged Mental Health Justice Research with Latines,” CSCS 455 “Entrepreneurialism and Society,” CSCS 600 “Capstone: Community Issues and Action” and CSCS 570 “Community-Based Research and Evaluation.”

Awards and Recognition

• Graduate Student Research Mentoring Fellowship, School of Human Ecology, UW–Madison, 2024-2025
• University Fellowship, UW–Madison, 2023-2024
• Campus-wide Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Community-Based Learning, UW–Madison, 2022-2023
• Jane Hampton Ausman Teaching Fellowship, School of Human Ecology, UW–Madison, 2021-2022
• Broader Community Impact and Engagement Award, Civil Society & Community Research Program, UW–Madison, 2020
• Full year-long DAAD scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service), 2015-2016
• BAYLAT scholarship, Bavarian Academic Center for Latin America, 2014

Selected Publications

Cruz, E., & Ahrens, V. (2025). Centering Healing and Activating Resilience: Shifting Our Transformative Evaluation Process During Covid at Centro Hispano of Dane County. In M. Brown & Kates, A. (Ed), Trauma-Informed Research and Evaluation. Guilford. [In press].

Ahrens, V., Cruz, E., Pasturczak, M., Bakken, L. L., & Moore, T. R. (2023). Between Funding Requirements and Community Priorities: Centro Hispano of Dane County’s Transformative Approach to Program Evaluation. Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 19(44), 197-212. https://doi.org/10.56645/jmde.v19i44.787

Wolfgram, M., & Ahrens, V. (2022). ‘One internship, two internships, three internships … more!’: Exploring the culture of the multiple internship economy. Journal of Education and Work, 35(2), 139-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2022.2036713

Blog Posts

Ahrens, V. (2018). Creative Connections: Improvising Across Disciplines. UW–Madison Art. https://art.wisc.edu/2018/06/05/creative-connections-improvising-across-disciplines-by-vivien-ahrens/

Ahrens, V. (2017). Going Global: Urban Sketching as a Shared Experience. Emergent Art Space. https://emergentartspace.org/forum/50746/

Ahrens, V. (2017). Rethinking Museum, Redefining Value: The Projeto Ecomuseu Campos de São José, Brasil. Emergent Art Space. https://emergentartspace.org/forum/49064/