About Linda

Linda Lu

Founder and Principal Researcher

Linda (she/her) is a researcher and artist with over 15 years of experience advancing equity through research, evaluation, and strategy. Her portfolio spans grassroots organizations, national nonprofits, and philanthropic institutions, where she has designed groundbreaking participatory frameworks, led multi-sector coalitions, and partnered on initiatives shaping education, gender justice, youth development, and community power.

As the founder of Evaluation Studio, Linda pioneered community-centered research for eight years—building participatory research approaches, co-creating Radical Visions of Safety Frameworks, piloting evaluation tools for small organizations, and developing innovative data instruments that elevated the stories of girls, women, gender-expansive, and LGBTQIA+ communities of color. Her client list reflects both range and impact, including collaborations with Honnold Foundation, United Way Bay Area, Blue Shield of California Foundation, Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice for Contra Costa County, YR Media, National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, San Jose State University, Sacramento City Unified School District, Deloitte, Girls Leadership, Planned Parenthood, AIR, Bay Area Women Sports Initiative (BAWSI), Techbridge For Girls, and more. She also briefly served as Co-Executive Director of Alliance for Girls, where she launched and led a research department that wove liberatory feminist methods into one of the nation’s largest gender justice alliances.

Linda’s work bridges conventional and liberatory approaches, integrating postcolonial and feminist methodologies with creative facilitation, strategic learning, and coalition building. Equally, her active artist practice informs her research—treating art as a method of inquiry and public storytelling, and extending her vision of knowledge creation as generative, participatory, and transformative. From initiating the first Women’s and Gender Studies concentration at Loyola University Chicago to shaping justice-driven frameworks in the Bay Area and beyond, she has remained steadfast in her commitment to centering those most impacted and expanding what counts as evidence, knowledge, and truth.