Principal Consultant
Dr Alicia McCoy
Alicia has dedicated her career to working for and with communities, families, children, and young people. Over the last 20 years she has worked as a clinical social worker, academic researcher, university tutor, guest lecturer, internal evaluator, and senior and executive leader within the community and public health sectors.
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.
Education & qualifications
Dissertation: The Practice of Evaluation in Australian Child and Family Organisations.
Thesis: Family Relationship Centres: Issues Surrounding Family Violence.
Double Major: Psychology and Sociology