Dr Alicia McCoy
Professional Background
Alicia has worked in and around evaluation for 20 years, across roles in clinical social work, internal not-for-profit evaluation, executive leadership, academic research, and consulting. This unique combination of experiences gives her a strong understanding of the realities of service delivery and the pressures organisations face, particularly in the community and mental health sectors where she worked for much of her career.
Alicia is passionate about the role that evaluation can play in achieving better outcomes: not just by measuring what has been achieved, but by supporting learning, decision-making, and meaningful improvement. She brings curiosity, care, and practical thinking to each project, with a focus on designing evaluation approaches that are grounded, ethical, and reflective of context.
Alicia also brings a strong strategic lens to her work, drawing on her extensive leadership experience to align evaluation with organisational purpose, strategy, and change agendas. She aims to ensure that, where appropriate, evidence not only informs practice but also supports broader decision-making and long-term impact.
Alicia is particularly drawn to work that supports children, young people, families, and the communities they live in. Alongside this, she brings deep expertise in evaluation capacity building, evidence-informed practice, and knowledge translation, particularly in complex settings where learning and improvement are essential.
At the heart of her approach is a commitment to genuine partnerships: listening carefully, working collaboratively, and building a shared sense of purpose.
Areas of Expertise
Alicia’s expertise is in designing evaluation approaches that are practical, strategic, and responsive to the settings in which they’re used. She supports organisations to apply evidence in ways that build insight, strengthen decision-making, and align with broader organisational goals. Much of her work takes place in complex environments where reflection and adaptation are essential to improving outcomes.
Strategic Expertise
- Strategic evaluation and organisational change: Expertise in developing organizational evaluation capabilities and supporting internal evaluation functions
- Evaluation capacity building: Strengthening internal capability through systems, tools, and coaching so that evaluation becomes part of everyday learning and improvement.
- Evidence-informed practice: Helping organisations apply research, data, and experience to inform service design, planning, and implementation.
- Implementation and improvement science: Applying practical methods to understand how programs and reforms are delivered, adapted, and sustained over time.
- Mixed methods evaluation and research: Integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to build a fuller picture of outcomes, context, and people's lived experience.
- Engaging with vulnerable populations: Designing and conducting evaluations that centre safety, trust, and accessibility, with approaches tailored to people with lived experience and those in complex or marginalised settings.
- Learning systems and feedback loops: Designing processes that support continuous reflection and helping teams use evidence to adapt and improve practice.
- Knowledge translation and use: Communicating findings in ways that are clear, engaging, and usable, supporting uptake by practitioners, leaders, and communities.
- Academic journal article writing: Experience writing peer-reviewed articles that connect research, practice, and policy in applied evaluation and social research.
Subject Matter Expertise
- Child and family services: Evaluating programs and systems that support children, young people, and families across prevention, early intervention, safety, and wellbeing.
- Family violence: Evaluation across prevention and response, including multi-agency and place-based initiatives.
- Mental health and suicide prevention: Evaluation of community-based and system-wide mental health initiatives, including strategy, implementation, and reform.
- Clinical governance: Designing and reviewing clinical governance frameworks that support safe, high-quality, and context-appropriate service delivery in community services.
- Community-led and place-based initiatives: Experience with collective impact, community development, and systems approaches to local change.
Selected Projects
Alicia has led and contributed to evaluations across child safety, mental health, workforce transition, and community development sectors. Her work demonstrates expertise in complex system evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and translating findings into organizational learning and improvement.
Development of an Implementation Framework
Co-leading evaluation of comprehensive support program for native timber industry workers following government closure announcement. Involves interviews with over 100 workers and families to understand program effectiveness in supporting transition, retraining and mental health.
Evaluation of the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework
Leading a multi-stage evaluation of the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework, focused on its early implementation and impact. The evaluation explores how the Framework has promoted child safety and wellbeing across organisational settings, drawing on surveys, interviews, and case studies to assess progress toward long-term outcomes.
Mental Health Reform Evaluation Project
Led the evaluation of a psychosocial pilot program as part of a broader Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Alcohol and Other Drugs service reform initiative. Engaged with community members, service providers, and stakeholders to assess program outcomes
Education & Qualifications
Alicia's educational background combines social work practice with advanced evaluation expertise, providing a comprehensive foundation for her work in research, evaluation, and organizational development within community and health sectors.
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Doctor of Philosophy (Evaluation)
University of Melbourne, 2018
Dissertation: The Practice of Evaluation in Australian Child and Family Organisations. -
Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)
Monash University, 2004
Thesis: Family Relationship Centres: Issues Surrounding Family Violence. -
Bachelor of Arts
Monash University, 2001
Double Major: Psychology and Sociology
Formal Training
- Designing Program Logics, Australian Evaluation Society
- Utilisation-Focused Evaluation, American Evaluation Association
- Developmental Evaluation, Australian Evaluation Society
- Principle-Focused Evaluation, Australian Evaluation Society
- Designing Evaluation Rubrics, American Evaluation Association
- Appraising Research Evidence, Sax Institute
- Evaluative Thinking, American Evaluation Association
- Performance Story Reporting, Australian Evaluation Society
- Social Return on Investment, Australian Evaluation Society
- Results-Based Accountability (Train-the-Trainer)
- Igniting Leadership, Leadership Victoria
- Mission Delivery for Social Impact, McKinsey
- Shaping Strategy to Create Value, Australian Graduate School of Management (Scholarship)
Professional Affiliations
- Member, Australian Evaluation Society - Current
- Honorary Fellow - Department of Social Work, The University of Melbourne
- Board Director - SIMNA (Social Impact Measurement Network Australia) 2019-2021
- Committee Member - Suicide Prevention Australia Research Advisory Committee 2018-2019
- Partner Investigator - Various NHMRC and ARC research grants, 2017-2022
Previous Experience
- Chief Impact Officer - Family Life
- Researcher in Residence - Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Head of Research, Evaluation and Learning - Beyond Blue
- General Manager, Research and Impact - Family Life
- Teacher, Social Work (Program Planning and Evaluation) - University of Melbourne