Several years ago while working in a community-based environmental justice organization, I interviewed a graduate student for a practicum position. He congratulated us on “doing PAR.” I nodded and smiled, but had no idea what he was talking about. After he left, I immediately looked up “PAR” on Wikipedia. I learned that what we had been calling a community survey or listening project, was in fact Participatory Action Research. Until that moment, I had never considered that I was a researcher. Through the AHE program, I learned about the theoretical frameworks and assumptions behind different types of research and evaluation; gained the language to describe some things I already knew and was practicing; and worked with new data collection, analysis and reporting tools.