About me

“The thrill of the work lies in collaborating with diverse individuals to make sense of complexity, to challenge assumptions, to think across patterns of cause-and-effect.”

Over past 20 years, I have facilitated over 500 projects with public sector organizations and non-profits of varying sizes and complexities across the province and abroad. My projects have ranged from leading strategic planning and change management sessions with executive teams throughout the provincial government; to supporting the Mayor’s Taskforce to Eliminate Poverty in Edmonton; to facilitating action labs to prototype and test social policies; to working with a multi-stakeholder team to redesign the contracting system for Human Services; to leading large-scale public participation processes on topics such as patient engagement, the opioid epidemic, suicide prevention, inclusion for LGBTQ+ communities, and affordable housing and homelessness. [See projects].

The success of these projects has hinged on my ability to develop interactive processes to stimulate dialogue, reflection, and creative problem-solving. The thrill of the work lies in collaborating with diverse individuals to make sense of complexity, to challenge assumptions, to think across patterns of cause-and-effect.

I recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Evaluation Capacity Network where I supported several initiatives to increase the ability of community-based organizations to use and conduct evaluation. This included teaching graduate-level courses on community-based evaluation. I also played a key role in stewarding the Journeys Project which gathered rich firsthand accounts of the experiences of ethnocultural parents with young children in early learning and childcare in Edmonton. The research combined traditional research methods (focus groups and interviews) with human-centred design approaches (empathy mapping and journey mapping) to provide a holistic view of the experiences of parents.

In 2016, I was part of a select cohort of 28 change-makers from across Canada who were invited to attend a 28-day social innovation residency at the Banff Centre. As a follow-up to this transformational experience, I sparked the development of Eval Lab in collaboration with the Community University Partnership (U of A) and the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations. Eval Lab is a co-learning space designed for leaders in community-based organizations to integrate strategic learning into their practices for decision-making and adaptation.

Over the past several years, I have enriched my innovation practice by using documentary photography, digital storytelling, and arts-based methods to expand the possibilities for critical reflection, dialogue, and deliberation. I have facilitated workshops using these methods in Kenya, Sweden, Tanzania, Pakistan, Haiti, and the USA (Louisiana). These community-based projects have animated the dialogue on poverty and homelessness, HIV/AIDS, sexual identity, childhood injury, and gender and race relations [See Community-based Research].

I have a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Alberta as well as a MSc in Public Health. My research focuses on using narrative and visual methods to explore community understandings of home and belonging in an informal settlement in South Africa [See Homelands]

QUALIFICATIONS

PhD, Anthropology, University of Alberta
MSc, Public Health Sciences, University of Alberta
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Evaluation Capacity Network, (UofA)
Getting to Maybe: A Social Innovation Residency, Banff Centre
Planning for Effective Public Participation, IAP2
Techniques for Effective Public Participation, IAP2
Facilitation Methods / Strategic Planning (ToP), ICA

Documentary Photography

My photos have been featured by such media as Photo District News, Musée Magazine, Newsweek Japan, the Globe and Mail, Photo Life Magazine, and the CBC. A monograph of the images from my work in South Africa was published by Daylight Books in June 2019 to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of South Africa’s first open election (See: the BOOK).

My photography has been exhibited in Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), New York City, Paris (France), Miami, Siena (Italy), and Pretoria (South Africa). In addition, one of my images was a finalist in the 2019 Portrait of Humanity competition convened by the British Journal of Photography and Magnum Photos and was showcased in Zagreb (Croatia), Lagos (Nigeria), Victoria (Australia) and New Orleans (USA) in fall 2019.

Accolades include:

2023: National Magazine Awards, Photo Essay & Photojournalism Award: Finalist
2023: Alberta Magazine Awards, Photograph series or essay: Silver
2019: Portrait of Humanity: Winner
2019 Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards, Portrait Photography Prize: Finalist
2019 IPA, Professional, Book, Documentary: Honorable Mention
2019 Px3 State of the World: Evidence of Habitation: Curatorial Selection
2019 Px3 State of the World: Requiem for a Rainbow Nation: Curatorial Selection
2018 Lucie Foundation, Photo Taken Emerging Scholarship: Shortlist
2018 National Pictures of the Year Awards Competition, Social Issues: Second Place
2018 PDN Photo Annual: Photojournalism/Documentary
2018 PDN Photo Annual: Personal Project
2018 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3), Portraiture/Culture: Bronze
2018 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3), Press/Political: Bronze
2018 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3), Fine Art/Abstract: Bronze
2018 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (P×3), Press/Feature Story: Honorable Mention
2018 Siena International Photo Awards: Remarkable Artwork
2018 IPA, Deeper Perspective: Honorable Mention
2017 Tokyo International Foto Awards, Editorial/Political: Bronze
2017 National Pictures of the Year Awards, Picture Story International: First Place
2017 National Pictures of the Year Awards Competition, Feature: Second Place