Natalie E. Cook, from Brooklyn, NY., is a PhD student in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership and Community Education at Virginia Tech.  She is interested in the intersections between program evaluation, cultural relevance and social justice. Natalie earned her MS in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership and Community Education at Virginia Tech in 2015. She received her BS in Human Development from Cornell University in 2012, where she studied youth development, cultural identity and intervention. As an undergraduate, Natalie served as a research assistant in the Cornell University Office for Research on Evaluation. Her experience in that role inspired her to share her evaluation knowledge with the broader Ithaca community by creating an evaluation capacity building program for aspiring leaders. Natalie is currently developing her dissertation proposal, which will involve social justice-centered evaluation capacity building with family service workers. Natalie aspires to become a professor who engages in transformative research, critical pedagogy and collaborative community engagement.