Professional Bio

Alice Apley, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist, who applies her expertise in qualitative research methodologies in the evaluation of informal education projects. As a Senior Research Associate at RMC Research Corporation, she manages front-end, formative, and summative evaluations for museum and media clients. Her evaluation work has included management of and participation in qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods evaluations. At RMC, she has also led or contributed to evaluations of civic and community engagement projects, among other educational and community projects. Prior to working as an evaluator, Alice spent over ten years working at the intersection of media and education, teaching video production, writing grants for educational film and television, and conducting library and archival research for museum exhibits.

Alice holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology and Certificate in Culture and Media from New York University, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University where she majored in the Science in Society Program. After college, she spent three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching agricultural science to middle school students in Botswana, southern Africa, where she also conducted her doctoral research. Alice continues to be active in ethnographic and documentary film worlds through both production work and board membership in the Society for Visual Anthropology.

Expertise & Interest Descriptors

Areas of Expertise include Qualitative and Ethnographic Research; Educational Media and Informal Education; Program Evaluation; and Ethnographic and Documentary Film Theory and Production. Alice's evaluation work focuses on understanding and maximizing the learning potential of diverse educational media experiences, from museum exhibits to new media. A second area of interest focuses on understanding (and evaluating) effective forms of community, scientific, and civic engagement projects in order to develop literate citizens and encourage public voices in community decision-making.

Planned Conference Participation