OUR STORY
Reclaiming Evaluation for Justice
Tiyuv (which means "improvement" in Hebrew) was born from a pivotal moment of reckoning and a commitment to justice. We are a national hub for JOC-led evaluation, founded on the principle that impact measurement must serve the communities it assesses. Our history is a testament to transforming a tool of gatekeeping into a practice of liberation and community self-determination.
Tiyuv's History as a Jews of Color-Led Movement
Tiyuv was co-founded in 2021 by two Jewish Women of Color, Shahanna McKinney Baldon, M.Ed., and Ramona Tenorio, Ph.D., in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd and the global uprisings against anti-Black racism. This moment brought urgent demands for accountability across the United States and within Jewish life, where racism against Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews was finally being named more openly.
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Despite public commitments to racial justice from Jewish philanthropy and organizations, evaluation - the very tool meant to measure equity - too often reinforced systemic inequities by sidelining community wisdom. Tiyuv was created as both a model and a hub for Jews of Color-led culturally responsive evaluation, reclaiming evaluation as a practice of justice, culture, and community self-determination. Guided by Jewish and BIPOC traditions, our co-founders built Tiyuv to hold institutions accountable and uplift community wisdom in evaluation.
Born from a Call for Accountability
2021
2022
Tiyuv implemented the Etz Chaim (Tree of Life) Culturally Responsive Evaluation model in a first effort with seven "early adopter" organizations, referred to as our Shivat Haminim (Seven Species). These pioneering partners included:
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The Jewish Theological Seminary Davidson School
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JOIN for Justice
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The Jewish Social Justice Roundtable
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Project Shamash
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The Selah Leadership Program at Bend the Arc
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Kirva Institute (DRIO)
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Edot Midwest
Tiyuv launched the New Evaluator Training and Mentoring Fellowship Program to develop Jews of Color as evaluators equipped to address bias and racism in Jewish spaces.
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Competitive Selection: The inaugural cohort selected four dynamic Jewish leaders of Color from a competitive application process that drew 15 applicants.
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Program Structure: The program provided nine months of training, structured chavruta practice, apprenticeships on evaluation projects, external professional development opportunities, and a generous monthly fellowship stipend.
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Professional Development: Fellows attended national professional conferences to deepen their evaluation identities, expand their leadership training, and strengthen their sense of community.
2025
Tiyuv launches a 3 year strategic plan. In 2025, Tiyuv embarked on a strategic planning process to envision our next chapter. We are expanding our community outreach and bridge-building by partnering with BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving organizations nationally. We built an advisory board composed of visionary JOC and BIPOC leaders to guide Tiyuv’s growth and strengthen our mission to advance justice, inclusion, and equity through culturally responsive evaluation.
Looking Ahead: Expanding Our Reach
Our work has been recognized within the field of evaluation as both novel and significant. In 2022, Tiyuv presented and published The Tiyuv Initiative: A Model for Culturally Responsive Evaluation of Jewish Community Racial Justice Programs at the American Evaluation Association annual meeting in New Orleans, alongside our inaugural Fellows.
In 2025, Tiyuv embarked on a strategic planning process to envision our next chapter. We are expanding our community outreach and bridge-building by partnering with BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving organizations nationally. We built an advisory board composed of visionary JOC and BIPOC leaders to guide Tiyuv’s growth and strengthen our mission to advance justice, inclusion, and equity through culturally responsive evaluation.
Fellows describe the program as both rigorous and transformative:
"Tiyuv brings a critical piece to evaluation that empowers Jews of Color to become agents of change in the world of evaluation while holding strong Jewish ethics."
Tiyuv Fellow, Cohort 1