WAKE FOREST, NC, August 18, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Guili Zhang, PhD, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Guili Zhang currently serves as President of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), a defining achievement in a career distinguished by leadership, scholarship, research, and service in evaluation and education. As an internationally renowned, award-winning professor and education leader, Dr. Zhang has significantly advanced evaluation and research methodology and contributed to the fields of evaluation and education worldwide.
As President of AEA, Dr. Zhang is committed to advancing excellence, innovation, inclusivity, financial vitality, and global engagement across the evaluation profession. Her leadership emphasizes the public value of evaluation, member engagement, methodological rigor, strong governance, fiscal sustainability, professional development, and the essential role of evaluation in supporting learning, improvement, and accountability. Her presidency follows years of leadership within AEA, including service on its Board of Directors and leadership of major Topical Interest Groups and task forces.
Dr. Guili Zhang is Professor of Research and Evaluation Methodology in the College of Education at East Carolina University (ECU). She previously served for seven years as Chair of the Department of Special Education, Foundations, and Research, where she fostered a collaborative and inclusive academic environment, supported faculty development, significantly increased external funding, and expanded program enrollment. As a professor, she teaches research and evaluation methodology, mentors doctoral students, directs dissertation research, and prepares future scholars and professionals to address important educational and societal challenges.
A prolific author and researcher, Dr. Zhang has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, seven books, and 25 book chapters. Among her signature scholarly contributions is the widely recognized book CIPP Evaluation Model: How to Evaluate for Improvement and Accountability, co-authored with pioneering evaluation theorist Daniel L. Stufflebeam. Her scholarship spans evaluation and research methodology, quantitative and qualitative methods, educational assessment, and program improvement.
Dr. Zhang has also directed or co-directed more than 35 large-scale national program and project evaluations, many funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Education. Through this work, she has applied rigorous evaluation and research methodologies to assess effectiveness, strengthen decision-making, support continuous improvement, and enhance the impact of major educational and social initiatives.
Her scholarship, research, teaching, and leadership have earned numerous prestigious national and international distinctions. Among them are the Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teacher Education from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), the Frontiers in Education Benjamin J. Dasher Best Paper Award, the American Society for Engineering Education Best Paper Award, recognition by the U.S. government under the Outstanding Professor or Researcher classification, the ECU Scholar-Teacher Award, the Five-Year Achievement Award for Excellence in Research, the Faculty Author Book Award, and induction into the Educators Hall of Fame.
Beyond AEA, Dr. Zhang has held leadership roles in prominent professional organizations, including service on the Executive Council of the American Educational Research Association's Measurement and Research Methodology Division and service as Chair of the AERA Outstanding Quantitative Dissertation Award Committee. Her broader leadership has also extended to educational, community, and cultural organizations.
Dr. Guili Zhang's professional influence extends across national borders. She has delivered more than 200 national and international conference presentations, including keynote addresses at major conferences, and has conducted workshops for university faculty, administrators, school principals, teachers, and parents worldwide.
Dr. Zhang earned her bachelor's degree from Shandong University in China and her master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Georgia Southern University. She subsequently earned her PhD in Research and Evaluation Methodology from the University of Florida and completed advanced postdoctoral training in large-scale statistical data analysis at Stanford University.
Her commitment to education and evaluation is deeply rooted in her personal journey. Growing up in a small rural village in China as the daughter of parents who had little opportunity for formal education, Dr. Zhang experienced firsthand the transformative power of learning. Education enabled her to transcend the limitations of her early circumstances and shaped her conviction that education can expand human potential, while rigorous evaluation can help ensure that programs, institutions, and policies genuinely improve people's lives.
Dr. Zhang has carried that commitment beyond her university and professional roles through service supporting education, cultural engagement, and community advancement. She is also the author of the national bestseller Dragon Mom Eagle Mom: Raising Outstanding Kids with American and Chinese Integrated Education, reflecting her decades-long commitment to bridging educational perspectives across cultures.
Looking ahead, Dr. Zhang seeks to further elevate evaluation as an essential force for learning, improvement, accountability, and societal progress. Through her presidency of the American Evaluation Association, her scholarship, educational leadership, and international engagement, she aims to expand the reach, relevance, rigor, and public value of evaluation and to strengthen its capacity to inform consequential decisions, advance education, and improve human action across all sectors of society.
About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. The suite of Marquis® publications, including Who's Who in America® and Who's Who in the World®, remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the globe. Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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