The document provides a curriculum vitae for Tracey K. Robertson, outlining her extensive experience and qualifications. Robertson has over 10 years experience in social innovation in both practical and academic settings. She holds a Master's degree in Social Work and a graduate diploma in Social Innovation. Robertson has 12+ years experience as a university instructor teaching topics like social entrepreneurship. She has led several large-scale community projects and initiatives.
I co-developed and presented this slideshow to administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill while serving as COO of SEEDS in the fall of 2007. It outlined the strategic goals of our student-led social entrepreneurship organization, and specified the ways in which we hoped to enlist help from UNC\'s administration.
Systems and Models to Redefine Organizations
The aims of this research are:
1 - Highlight the importance of developing capacity for self-adaptation to deal with the radical changes we are facing from the current socio-economic complexity.
2 - Identify which cultural and environmental conditions can accelerate (or delay) the spread of self-adaptive organisms.
3 - Designing and testing solutions that enable the ability to self-adaptation of individuals and organizations.
If you want to design social innovation curriculum, co-curriculum, or make the case for social innovation on your campus then the Commons is for you. This presentation gives an overview of our online professional development program for faculty and administrators working in changemaker education on campus. For more information visit www.ashokau.org/commons.
Giant Venn Diagram: New Approaches to Educational Partnershipsamtrombley
Slides providing more information on exemplars in educational collaborations, including new methods and tools for evaluating, developing, and sustaining impactful partnerships
I co-developed and presented this slideshow to administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill while serving as COO of SEEDS in the fall of 2007. It outlined the strategic goals of our student-led social entrepreneurship organization, and specified the ways in which we hoped to enlist help from UNC\'s administration.
Systems and Models to Redefine Organizations
The aims of this research are:
1 - Highlight the importance of developing capacity for self-adaptation to deal with the radical changes we are facing from the current socio-economic complexity.
2 - Identify which cultural and environmental conditions can accelerate (or delay) the spread of self-adaptive organisms.
3 - Designing and testing solutions that enable the ability to self-adaptation of individuals and organizations.
If you want to design social innovation curriculum, co-curriculum, or make the case for social innovation on your campus then the Commons is for you. This presentation gives an overview of our online professional development program for faculty and administrators working in changemaker education on campus. For more information visit www.ashokau.org/commons.
Giant Venn Diagram: New Approaches to Educational Partnershipsamtrombley
Slides providing more information on exemplars in educational collaborations, including new methods and tools for evaluating, developing, and sustaining impactful partnerships
Interested in attending the Exchange? Check out the highlights of the 2017 Exchange to learn more about attendees, what the most popular sessions were, and the feedback we received.
Student-directed engagement in community-linked STEM integration through coll...Kim Flintoff
Prepared for the Deakin STEM Education Conference 2021.
This paper will be co-authored by a team of participating Year 10 students who are working on a challenge-based learning project in their TIDES (Technology Innovation Design Enterprise Sustainability) class at Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
They are considering a problem derived from the theme of National Science Week 2021 (Food: Different by Design). The focus on issues relating to Food Security has enabled them to create a body of work that supports deep engagement and a scope of learning that exceeds most traditional content-delivery models. They have been able to generate work that can be submitted across a variety of contexts and to enable entry to several external programs for recognition.
With their teacher, the students will describe and evaluate the processes and ways of working they have adopted, as well as highlighting how their work has produced interdisciplinary artifacts that can be used to guide and assess learning across a range of subject areas within their regular school timetable. They will also consider the benefits of student agency and external audiences in building engagement and focus in their learning. The students will discuss how programs such as Game Changer Awards, ANSTO National Science Week Hackathon, STEM4Innovation and think tank events provide platforms for the practice and application of their collaborative human-centered design-thinking process to enhance their learning in STEM and other areas across the curriculum.
Too often student experience of learning is not reflected in education conferences. As one of the most important voices in the whole system, they often struggle to be heard. This paper will provide insights into student perceptions of integrated STEM as an approach to meaningful learning that provides scope and depth of learning across many parts of the broader K-100 curriculum. Content and capabilities will be considered and the students along with their teacher will endeavour to unpack the benefits and challenges they encounter.
Launched in 2004, the Chalkboard Project is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to unite Oregonians to make our K-12 public schools among the nation’s best. We aim to help create a more informed and engaged public that understands and addresses the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools.
Part of a series of presentations about Challenge-based Learning and Curtin University's Global Challenge platform. Presented during May 2020 via the Cisco Digital Schools Network.
http://LearningFuturesNetwork.org
http://GlobalCnallenge.org.au
Launched in 2004, the Chalkboard Project is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to unite Oregonians to make our K-12 public schools among the nation’s best. We aim to help create a more informed and engaged public that understands and addresses the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools.
Learn more: http://www.chalkboardproject.org/about-us.php
High-Impact Signature Work: Case Studies in Community-Engaged CapstonesAriane Hoy
How can institutions create scaffolded pathways that culminate in the opportunities for students to integrate and apply their learning through Signature Work, especially projects that also leave a legacy by contributing to positive community impacts? This session will explore how both student leadership and faculty innovation can help to drive change to culture, curriculum, and co-curriculum. It will showcase examples from the Bonner Foundation and its network of institutions that are strategically working to embed community-engaged capstones. Through both individual and team-based projects, students are working to build the capacity of schools, nonprofits, and government agencies. They are working on social action initiatives. Come learn and take away inspiring approaches and examples.
Ariane Hoy, Vice President, Bonner Foundation; David Roncolato, Professor and Director of Civic Engagement, Allegheny College; Alexander Nichols, Bonner Scholar, Davidson College
Lithuania is among the first in Europe to implement the Creative Partnerships programme on a national scale outside the UK.
Read more:
http://www.kurybinespartnerystes.lt/en.php
Black Swans and the Future of EducationKim Flintoff
“A black swan is an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict. Black swan events are typically random and unexpected.”
2017 saw the conclusion of one of the most significant global projects around educational technologies. The Horizon Report K-12 was published for the last time as the New Media Consortium was wound up operations.
During 2018 several new projects emerged around the globe including the CoSN Driving K-12 Innovation project, Australian Educational Technology Trends, and others. Each seeking to bridge the knowledge gap between where education is heading and what will be happening in terms of technology use.
This talk will consider some of the emerging trends, and discuss some of the expectations over the next 2-5 years as they are likely to be experienced by schools, teachers, administrators and technology leaders. Extended reality, drones, eSports, data and analytics, visualisation technologies, space science and astronomy, new strategies for assessment, and other imminent engagements will be discussed.
13th ANNUAL SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE
USC MARSHALL - Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship - Make meaning, make money and move the world to a better place.Professor Mike Caslin will be presenting GCSEN Foundation’s paper on behalf of its Social Entrepreneurship Institute’s Members listed below for “Organizing the Social Enterprise from Startup to Transformative Scale”. A rigorous prac-ademic approach (practitioner focused practical tools supported by academic strength) will be explored. The paper was co-authored by practitioners and professors which include:
· Mike Caslin - CEO, Adjunct Professor at GCSEN Foundation,
Babson College Executive Education
· Len Green - Featured Lecture, Babson College
· Mary Kate Naatus Ph.D. - Professor, St. Peter’s University
· Nancy Scott Ph.D. -Professor, Wheaton College
· Joseph Szocik- Research and Innovation, GCSEN
Over the years, the conference has hosted other experts in the field which include Nobel Laureates Muhammad Yunus and Michael Spence as well as Bill Drayton, Jed Emerson, Jacqueline Novogratz, Andrew Kassoy, Susan Davis, Greg Dees, David Bornstein, Cheryl Dorsey, Linda Rottenberg, Mark Kramer, Jason Saul, Billy Shore, Scott Harrison, Tom Szaky, Darell Hammond, Scott Barrie, Laura Callanan, Brian Trelstad, Sara Olsen, and Tris Lumley among others.
This confluence of the leading thought leaders, scholars and social entrepreneurs will further accelerate the growth and development in the theory and research in the transformative field of social entrepreneurship.
Professor Caslin believes that, “Social Entrepreneurship offers the best way forward toward peace and prosperity. Powered by Millennial college and graduate students and adult learners and doers, supported by outstanding faculty and impact investors and visionary philanthropists The DDS Foundation, Sobrato-Brisson Trust of Silicon Valley Community Foundation and The Lois and Len Green Foundation, we are supporting an emerging and powerful, market-based transformative force for local economies and beyond. We at GCSEN Foundation believe this will be the most powerful, practical and proven wealth creating, poverty reducing, local economy building force for good to be seen in the Millennial driven economy in the decades to come”.
This conference was made possible by the bold and visionary leadership of the conference’s co-directors Jill R. Kickul and Sophie Bacq. Jill is the Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship and has a bestselling book, Understanding Social Entrepreneurship: The Relentless Pursuit of Mission in an Ever Changing World. Sophie is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches social entrepreneurship and microfinance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
If you take any hundred or so books on change, the message all boils down to one word: motivation. If one's theory of action does not motivate people to put in the effort- individually and collectively- that is necessary to get results, improvement is not possible (Fullan 2006).
Ведущий семинара - Bjoern Obmann (Берлин, Германия), координатор по работе с волонтерами Организации Друзей Земли BUNDjugend (Friends of the Earth Germany) - крупнейшей молодежной организации Германии.
In this introduction to engagement, participants in an "Engage Your Teaching" workshop were introduced to the history of service-learning at St. Thomas, the office of Global and Local Engagement and what the staff of that office mean when they use the term "engagement," examples of service-learning at the University of St. Thomas, and how engagement mobilizes for transformation.
Interested in attending the Exchange? Check out the highlights of the 2017 Exchange to learn more about attendees, what the most popular sessions were, and the feedback we received.
Student-directed engagement in community-linked STEM integration through coll...Kim Flintoff
Prepared for the Deakin STEM Education Conference 2021.
This paper will be co-authored by a team of participating Year 10 students who are working on a challenge-based learning project in their TIDES (Technology Innovation Design Enterprise Sustainability) class at Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
They are considering a problem derived from the theme of National Science Week 2021 (Food: Different by Design). The focus on issues relating to Food Security has enabled them to create a body of work that supports deep engagement and a scope of learning that exceeds most traditional content-delivery models. They have been able to generate work that can be submitted across a variety of contexts and to enable entry to several external programs for recognition.
With their teacher, the students will describe and evaluate the processes and ways of working they have adopted, as well as highlighting how their work has produced interdisciplinary artifacts that can be used to guide and assess learning across a range of subject areas within their regular school timetable. They will also consider the benefits of student agency and external audiences in building engagement and focus in their learning. The students will discuss how programs such as Game Changer Awards, ANSTO National Science Week Hackathon, STEM4Innovation and think tank events provide platforms for the practice and application of their collaborative human-centered design-thinking process to enhance their learning in STEM and other areas across the curriculum.
Too often student experience of learning is not reflected in education conferences. As one of the most important voices in the whole system, they often struggle to be heard. This paper will provide insights into student perceptions of integrated STEM as an approach to meaningful learning that provides scope and depth of learning across many parts of the broader K-100 curriculum. Content and capabilities will be considered and the students along with their teacher will endeavour to unpack the benefits and challenges they encounter.
Launched in 2004, the Chalkboard Project is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to unite Oregonians to make our K-12 public schools among the nation’s best. We aim to help create a more informed and engaged public that understands and addresses the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools.
Part of a series of presentations about Challenge-based Learning and Curtin University's Global Challenge platform. Presented during May 2020 via the Cisco Digital Schools Network.
http://LearningFuturesNetwork.org
http://GlobalCnallenge.org.au
Launched in 2004, the Chalkboard Project is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to unite Oregonians to make our K-12 public schools among the nation’s best. We aim to help create a more informed and engaged public that understands and addresses the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools.
Learn more: http://www.chalkboardproject.org/about-us.php
High-Impact Signature Work: Case Studies in Community-Engaged CapstonesAriane Hoy
How can institutions create scaffolded pathways that culminate in the opportunities for students to integrate and apply their learning through Signature Work, especially projects that also leave a legacy by contributing to positive community impacts? This session will explore how both student leadership and faculty innovation can help to drive change to culture, curriculum, and co-curriculum. It will showcase examples from the Bonner Foundation and its network of institutions that are strategically working to embed community-engaged capstones. Through both individual and team-based projects, students are working to build the capacity of schools, nonprofits, and government agencies. They are working on social action initiatives. Come learn and take away inspiring approaches and examples.
Ariane Hoy, Vice President, Bonner Foundation; David Roncolato, Professor and Director of Civic Engagement, Allegheny College; Alexander Nichols, Bonner Scholar, Davidson College
Lithuania is among the first in Europe to implement the Creative Partnerships programme on a national scale outside the UK.
Read more:
http://www.kurybinespartnerystes.lt/en.php
Black Swans and the Future of EducationKim Flintoff
“A black swan is an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict. Black swan events are typically random and unexpected.”
2017 saw the conclusion of one of the most significant global projects around educational technologies. The Horizon Report K-12 was published for the last time as the New Media Consortium was wound up operations.
During 2018 several new projects emerged around the globe including the CoSN Driving K-12 Innovation project, Australian Educational Technology Trends, and others. Each seeking to bridge the knowledge gap between where education is heading and what will be happening in terms of technology use.
This talk will consider some of the emerging trends, and discuss some of the expectations over the next 2-5 years as they are likely to be experienced by schools, teachers, administrators and technology leaders. Extended reality, drones, eSports, data and analytics, visualisation technologies, space science and astronomy, new strategies for assessment, and other imminent engagements will be discussed.
13th ANNUAL SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE
USC MARSHALL - Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship - Make meaning, make money and move the world to a better place.Professor Mike Caslin will be presenting GCSEN Foundation’s paper on behalf of its Social Entrepreneurship Institute’s Members listed below for “Organizing the Social Enterprise from Startup to Transformative Scale”. A rigorous prac-ademic approach (practitioner focused practical tools supported by academic strength) will be explored. The paper was co-authored by practitioners and professors which include:
· Mike Caslin - CEO, Adjunct Professor at GCSEN Foundation,
Babson College Executive Education
· Len Green - Featured Lecture, Babson College
· Mary Kate Naatus Ph.D. - Professor, St. Peter’s University
· Nancy Scott Ph.D. -Professor, Wheaton College
· Joseph Szocik- Research and Innovation, GCSEN
Over the years, the conference has hosted other experts in the field which include Nobel Laureates Muhammad Yunus and Michael Spence as well as Bill Drayton, Jed Emerson, Jacqueline Novogratz, Andrew Kassoy, Susan Davis, Greg Dees, David Bornstein, Cheryl Dorsey, Linda Rottenberg, Mark Kramer, Jason Saul, Billy Shore, Scott Harrison, Tom Szaky, Darell Hammond, Scott Barrie, Laura Callanan, Brian Trelstad, Sara Olsen, and Tris Lumley among others.
This confluence of the leading thought leaders, scholars and social entrepreneurs will further accelerate the growth and development in the theory and research in the transformative field of social entrepreneurship.
Professor Caslin believes that, “Social Entrepreneurship offers the best way forward toward peace and prosperity. Powered by Millennial college and graduate students and adult learners and doers, supported by outstanding faculty and impact investors and visionary philanthropists The DDS Foundation, Sobrato-Brisson Trust of Silicon Valley Community Foundation and The Lois and Len Green Foundation, we are supporting an emerging and powerful, market-based transformative force for local economies and beyond. We at GCSEN Foundation believe this will be the most powerful, practical and proven wealth creating, poverty reducing, local economy building force for good to be seen in the Millennial driven economy in the decades to come”.
This conference was made possible by the bold and visionary leadership of the conference’s co-directors Jill R. Kickul and Sophie Bacq. Jill is the Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship and has a bestselling book, Understanding Social Entrepreneurship: The Relentless Pursuit of Mission in an Ever Changing World. Sophie is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches social entrepreneurship and microfinance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
If you take any hundred or so books on change, the message all boils down to one word: motivation. If one's theory of action does not motivate people to put in the effort- individually and collectively- that is necessary to get results, improvement is not possible (Fullan 2006).
Ведущий семинара - Bjoern Obmann (Берлин, Германия), координатор по работе с волонтерами Организации Друзей Земли BUNDjugend (Friends of the Earth Germany) - крупнейшей молодежной организации Германии.
In this introduction to engagement, participants in an "Engage Your Teaching" workshop were introduced to the history of service-learning at St. Thomas, the office of Global and Local Engagement and what the staff of that office mean when they use the term "engagement," examples of service-learning at the University of St. Thomas, and how engagement mobilizes for transformation.
Paul McArthur, Jerry Koh, Vani Jain and Mali Bain
System Insights from ‘WellAhead’: A Social Innovation Lab Approach to Advance the Prioritization and Sustained Integration of Student Social and Emotional Wellbeing in K-12 Schools:
Diversity and Community Engagement Strategic Plan 2014-15 Annual Progress Report
FINALTraceyRobertson CV Sept2015 (4)
1. September 2015
Tracey K. Robertson
159 Dalecroft Place
Waterloo, On N2T 2T1
519-886-9238
TraceyRobertson17@gmail.com
CURRICULUM VITAE
HIGHLIGHTS OF ACHIEVEMENTS:
10 years of experience fueling social innovation in both the practical and academic areas. I have
expertise in both theoretical and real world situations to facilitate system-wide change.
I hold a Master of Social Work Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Graduate Diploma in Social
Innovation from the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, University of Waterloo.
12 years of experience as a university instructor within the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier
University and at other academic institutions. I teach community interventions and social
entrepreneurship to future Social and Community Workers. In partnership with MaRS Solution Lab at
the MaRS Discovery District, I have incorporated design thinking and change lab methodologies within
the course with a special focus on youth unemployment.
Engineered a grassroots community change initiative in partnership with Banny Banerjee, Senior
Research Engineer of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, Stanford University and the Waterloo
Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, University of Waterloo. This resulted in new methods for
experimentation, prototyping new ideas, and convening spaces for community action, using a laboratory
model.
23 years of experience in philanthropy with regional, provincial and national granting foundations.
Extensive experience designing and implementing outcome-based community investment strategies.
Responsible for grant administration management of over $5 million annually and detailed financial and
organizational analysis and evaluation processes for Canada’s largest public Granting Foundation.
Led and designed a large scale system change project with five large children and mental health
community organizations, two school boards and five marginalized communities. This resulted in the
first community integrated children’s service system in Guelph and Wellington County.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2014-present Part-time faculty, Renison University College, Social Development Studies Program,
University of Waterloo
• Designed the undergraduate curriculum and currently teach the Community
Interventions course with a specific focus on child poverty, youth homelessness and
marginalized and racialized communities.
2. 2012-present Part-time faculty, Master of Social Work, Social Entrepreneurship, Wilfrid
Laurier University
• Designed joint curriculum with Wilfrid Laurier’s School of Business and Economics
Entrepreneurship Launch Pad program for Social Entrepreneurship and Social
Innovation.
• Utilized and adapted the Business Canvas Model to reflect the social and ecological
frameworks that are more relevant to the social service system.
• In 2015, I redesigned the social entrepreneurship course in partnership with MARS
Solution Lab in Toronto, a public and social innovation lab that tackles complex
societal challenges that requires system change. Co-designed a design lab for 10
students on a deeper dive into youth unemployment in order to better address
social and environmental problems affecting poor and vulnerable youth
populations.
• This curriculum design was recommended to the Dean of the Faculty of Education at
Wilfrid Laurier University and a design lab for social change and social innovation
was adapted and pitched for the first time to future educators for 2015-2016
academic year.
2010 Part-time instructor, Honours B.A. Leadership Program, Youth Community Leadership,
Brantford Campus, Wilfrid Laurier University
• The social change model of leadership for students and academia was used from
Central Michigan University
2005-present Part-time instructor, Master of Social Work, Community Interventions, Social
Policy and Marginalized Neighbourhood Development, Wilfrid Laurier University
2005 Course developer and instructor, Certificate in Human Services Organizational
Development, Leadership and System Change, Wilfrid Laurier University
1995-1998 Practicum Supervisor, Master of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University and University of
Toronto
1990-1992 Instructor “Stay in School Program for at-risk youth” Waterloo Region School Board
ACADEMIC ADVISOR/MENTORING
2015 Core Team Advisor, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Recode Project Advisory
Team, Faculty of Arts, Wilfrid Laurier University.
2013-present Advisory Committee Member-Business and Health and Social Services,
Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.
2012 Advisor, Waterloo Community Social Innovation Hub student project, Hasso Plattner
Institute of Design, Stanford University.
3. 2011 Community Faculty Advisor, Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience
(WISIR), Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo.
• Co-led a series of cross -disciplinary sessions on introducing design methodologies
for greater systemic change and deeper social impact.
2011 Advisor, Master of Business Administration student team, Business Administration,
Wilfrid Laurier University.
• Teen pregnancy and design thinking, which resulted in a design thinking
methodology for engaging youth in solving problems.
2006- 2008 Curriculum Committee, Master of Social Work Program, Social Work Department,
Wilfrid Laurier University.
2005-2007 Committee Member, Institute for Community Service Learning, Wilfrid Laurier
University.
ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2014-Present Ontario Trillium Foundation (Canada’s Largest Public Funder for the voluntary
Sector), Strategic Lead for Prosperous
• Led the implementation of internal and external knowledge development and
knowledge sharing initiatives around child and family poverty, youth homelessness,
unemployment and entrepreneurship.
• Refined theory of change and strategy to enhance economic well-being for citizens
of Ontario.
• Content expert responsible for advancing the knowledge in the sector and building
relationships across the province that will support the delivery of the Foundation's
strategic goals.
• Works collaboratively with colleagues from across the Foundation to develop and
deliver initiatives to share and apply results and knowledge arising from research in
related subject matter areas.
• Participant in designing impact assessment survey tools for assessing impact in
prosperous action area strategy.
2012- 2014 Ontario Trillium Foundation, Strategy lead for Innovation
• Recognized knowledge expert on social innovation and social enterprise for the
Foundation. Delivered ten presentations and three consultations throughout the
province on how we invest in innovation.
• Developed action areas and priorities for the new investment strategy for the
Foundation based on the Canadian Index of Well-being, University of Waterloo. (A
national index for measuring community well-being).
• Designed strategies and mechanisms and a framework that supported innovative
investment practices. This resulted in an Innovation Spectrum that identified the
conditions from which innovation can occur.
4. • Engineered a broad scale staff, volunteer and board consultation on the innovation
and social enterprise agenda for the foundation.
5. 2012-2013 Ontario Trillium Foundation, Program Lead for Future Fund
• Spearheaded Future Fund program that resulted in $5 million allocated to 13 highly
innovative and strategic initiatives for young social entrepreneurs across the
province.
• Created and orchestrated a ground-breaking provincial design lab for over 80
youth, social entrepreneurs, educators, venture capitalists, government officials
and designed province-wide pitch sessions, a Board committee engagement
strategy and a peer coaching process.
• This high engagement design model leveraged $5 million from the Ministry of
Youth Child Services for the delivery of at-risk Youth program which was
implemented in 5 marginalized communities across Toronto.
2009-2010 Tides Canada Foundation, System Community Entrepreneur (6 month leave)
• Engineered and originated an innovative community-wide engagement initiative
with a multi-disciplinary team of educators, business leaders, community and
corporate funders and venture capitalists to support innovation, creativity and
continuous learning for the non- profit sector.
• Established a Research and Development initiative leveraging $350,000 in new
funds from funders to support social enterprises in the community.
• Brought a systems perspective by acting between spaces and taking a high level
view to connect broader individuals, groups and innovations, and facilitate
synergies across sectors in Waterloo Region.
2005-2006 Ontario Trillium Foundation, Senior Analyst and Project Lead
• Led a provincial “Granting for Impact” project to understand the effectiveness of
our $100 million investments into building the capacity of the voluntary sector
which resulted in an assessment framework to measure community and
organizational capacity.
• Participated in an advisory/working group of internal staff and an external advisory
group representing thought leaders from the USA and across Canada.
1998-2012 Ontario Trillium Foundation, Regional Program Manager
• Successfully managed the investment and decision making process for the effective
distribution of $5million annually to over 480 arts and culture, social services,
sports and recreation, and environmental initiatives and organizations; annual
targets met within specific timelines.
• Liaised and provided leadership to an 18 member volunteer review team, a small
consultative team and established strong working relationships with government
officials, academics and business leaders in the design and implementation of
creating more effective and resilient organizations across the country.
1995 – 1998 Canadian Living Foundation, Eaton’s National Director of Programs
• Engineered and implemented a pan-Canadian Community Partners Program to
support region-wide child nutrition programs. This program established five
Canadian Living Provincial Boards and one in the Yukon Territory. Over 1500
6. nutrition programs were created, reaching over 10,000 aboriginal children in
impoverished and remote areas of the Territory.
• Successfully managed a national grants program of over $2.5million annually to
500 child nutrition programs; met government targets within specified deadlines;
and supervised small complement of staff.
• Led the implementation of 12 Community Partner Programs throughout five
provinces, working with a cross -disciplinary team that represented business,
education, health and community partners. One became the first Provincial Board
for the Foundation. The program created over 110 child nutrition programs across
Canada supporting over 3000 children.
1991 – 1995 Guelph- Wellington United Way Social Planning Council, Director of Social
Planning
• Successfully project-managed the restructuring of six children and youth health,
social and educational organizations, amalgamated administrative and
management structures, integrated and streamlined services and departments,
and redeployed staff resources to deliver significant costs savings and increased
client/consumer accessibility
• Designed and implemented an outcome -based evaluation tool to increase
consumer participation from marginalized communities which resulted in a more
responsive children’s service system
EDUCATION
2011-2012 Social Innovation Graduate Diploma
Institute for Complexity and Resilience, University of Waterloo
(received sponsorship from The J.W. McConnell Foundation)
2010 Human Centred Design Master Certificate, Stanford Innovation Masters’ Series
Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, Stanford University
2008-2010 The Co-Active Coach Training Program
Coaching certificate (3 of 4 modules completed)
1989-1991 Master of Social Work, Community and Organizational Development and
Social Policy
Wilfrid Laurier University
1986-1988 Bachelor of Arts
University of Western Ontario, King’s College
1980-1982 Developmentally Handicapped Councillor Diploma
Fanshawe College
7. PUBLISHED ARTICLES
2015
(In progress) A Citizen-led Approach to Measuring and Enhancing Community Well-being within
Ontario’s Headwaters Region; in The International Handbook of Community Well-being. Joint
publication of University of Manchester and Purdue University.
2010
“A Kaleidoscope of Community Innovation: Designing Community Impact in the Waterloo
Region.”(Dianna Denton & Tracey Robertson) The Philanthropist 23(3) 283-301.
MANUALS/GUIDES
2011
“How to Guide” Design Community Solutions, Hasso Plattner School of Design, Stanford University. Also
initiated and led design of a community innovation hub with the design thinking students which resulted
in comprehensive How-to Guide for establishing a pop-up lab for Waterloo Region.
2005
“Building Capacity, Granting for Impact.” Research Report for the Ontario Trillium Foundation, April
2005.
1999
“National Community Partners Manual for Child Nutrition” Canadian Living Foundation, Toronto,
Ontario
WORKING PAPERS
2013
“Investing in Innovation, a Conceptual Framework for Strategic Investment” Ontario Trillium
Foundation, March 2013
2012
“A New Lens for Philanthropy: Using Design Thinking as a Tool to Tackle tough Social Problems”
University of Waterloo, Diploma in Social Innovation, March 2012.
8. 2011
“How Do We Build a Culture of Innovation for our Non-Profit Sector that Will Have Greater
Transformational Impact?” Case Study, University of Waterloo, Diploma in Social Innovation, September
2011.
“Empathy, a Driver for Change” University of Waterloo, Diploma in Social Innovation, October 2011.
PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Pitch Judge, Canadian Association for Social Enterprise, London, Ontario, June 2015.
Presenter, Provincial Conference for Food Banks, May 2015.
Pitch Judge, Youth and Entrepreneurship, Communitech, March 2015.
Designed workshop and Presented- “Community and Citizen Engaging”at national conference, Tamarack
Institute for Community Engagement, Kitchener, 2014.
Presenter- “What’s in the Water in Waterloo” Presentation for Philanthropic Foundations of Canada
Conference, Toronto, 2011.
Presenter- “An Innovative Funder’s Experience”, Community Foundations of Canada, 2010.
Presenter – “Investing in Innovation: Leadership in the Public Sector”, University of Guelph, 2009.
Keynote speaker –“ Investing in Organizational Capacity” Managing Accountability & Risk for Grants &
Contributions the Canadian Institute, Ottawa, Workshop, October 2005.
Presenter –“Organizational Capacity Building” Joint Conference on Capacity for Impact of the Alliance
for Non-profit Management and the National Council of Non-profit Associations, Chicago, July 2005.
Panel member –“Building Organizational Capacity”Strengthening the Volunteer Sector’s Voice in Public
Policy Dialogue, Carleton University, September 2005.
VOLUNTEER SECTOR EXPERIENCE
2012- Present Council Member, AScent Youth Social Entrepreneurship Program Advisory
Council
Communitech, Waterloo, Ontario
2011- Present Thought Leader and Advisor - Vibrant Communities Canada
Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement
2012-Present Committee Member, Neighbourliness Community of Practice
Tamarack Institute of Community Engagement
9. 2010-2012 Committee Member - National Human Resources Council,
Government of Canada, HR policy committee
2009 Committee Member, Social Finance Sub-Committee, Opportunities for Social
Entrepreneurship
MARS Discovery District
2008-2010 Committee Member
National literacy Advisory Council, Ottawa Ontario
2008- 2010 Youth Advisory Council on Youth Engagement
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Received Committee Innovation Award for the report
2007 - 2008 Member, SKIPPY Federal Grant Committee for Homelessness
Regional Municipality of Waterloo
10. 2010-2012 Committee Member - National Human Resources Council,
Government of Canada, HR policy committee
2009 Committee Member, Social Finance Sub-Committee, Opportunities for Social
Entrepreneurship
MARS Discovery District
2008-2010 Committee Member
National literacy Advisory Council, Ottawa Ontario
2008- 2010 Youth Advisory Council on Youth Engagement
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Received Committee Innovation Award for the report
2007 - 2008 Member, SKIPPY Federal Grant Committee for Homelessness
Regional Municipality of Waterloo