Career Development

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CLIENT RELATIONS MANAGER

PlaceSpeak, Vancouver BC, JUL 11-PRESENT

Responsible for client attraction and resident outreach for  a user-based online community consultation platform. Key activities:

  • Represent the company and conduct related outreach and advocacy with a variety of stale holders, including private sector and non-profit clients, provincial and local governments,  residential users, our Board of Director, financial supporters and the media.
  • Manage and grow the company’s online presence through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other relevant tools to raise awareness and ultimately attract clients and users.
  • Leading the development of a communications plan to provide direction for the company outreach and marketing strategy.

COORDINATOR

Jane’s Walk Phoenix, Phoenix AZ, MAR 09-MAY 11

Coordinator of Jane’s Walk Phoenix, an urban walking tour honoring the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs. Key activities:

  • Initiated and  hosted consecutive Jane’s Walk in downtown Phoenix in 2009 and 2010.  In 2011 I coordinated three successful Jane’s Walk in the Phoenix area. This includes developing a running a website, coordinating guides and speakers and promoting the event in the local media (both traditional and online)
  • Approximately 30 people participated in the inaugural 2009 walk.  In 2010, this number increased to 80 people. In 2011 over 200 participated in three walks.
  • Hosted a Jane’s Talk in May 2010 to highlight the recently published book,  ”What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs.”
  • Member of the Jane’s Walk USA management team in 2010 and 2011. My responsibilities included developing strategies for the organization and assisting with outreach and website development.
  • Manage and Jane Walk’s online presence through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and other relevant tools to raise awareness of Jane’s Walk and the ideas of Jane Jacobs. (Ongoing)

COMMUNITY BUILDER

Self-Employed, Phoenix AZ, SEP 09-MAY 11

Responsible for building a community of people interested in creating and sustaining an authentic urbanism in central Phoenix. Key activities:

  • President of the Grandview Neighborhood Association a diverse central Phoenix neighborhood of about 1,200 residences.
  • Blogger for Yurbanism, my personal blog focused on making our cities more livable, community-oriented places.
  • Writer for Downtown Phoenix Journal and Phxated.com, two online journals online journal that offer an insider’s view of local culture politics and events.
  • Member of the Canalscape Advisory Board, an initiative exploring the possibility of an authentic and sustainable desert urbanism for the region, composed of urban cores and corridors distributed along the canal banks.
  • Participate in a variety of other meetings and events focusing on place making, community building and creating livable neighborhoods.

For more details on these roles and otehr activities, refer to the Community Involvement section of my resume.

SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST

Morrison Institute For Public Policy, Arizona State University, Phoenix AZ, FEB 07-SEP 09

Responsible for conducting research on contemporary public policy issues. Key activities:

  • Collecting original data through interviews and consultation with experts.
  • Analyzing existing information through review of published research reports, current legislation, and statistical data.
  • Identifying emerging public policy issues though media monitoring, data gathering and analysis, and networking.
  • Producing practical, applied research reports, op-ed articles and briefing papers.

Contributed to the following Morrison Institute publications:

Other publication contributions:

  • DATOS: Focus on Arizona’s Hispanic Market 2007 and 2008. Contributed to data selection and wrote introduction and section overviews for this annual Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce publication.

POLICY ADVISOR

Assembly of First Nations, Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination, Ottawa ON, MAR 04-FEB 07

Responsible for the horizontal integration of policy development and strategic planning for the Assembly. Key activities:

  • Providing strategic research and environmental scans to enhance the Assembly’s influence of the Government of Canada‘s policy agenda.
  • Coordinating the Assembly’s position paper and background materials for the November 2005 First Minister Meeting on Aboriginal Issues. This led to the Kelowna Accord, a five-year, $5 billion dollar agreement between the Government of Canada and the First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. My area of focus was coordinating the First Nations housing part of the agreement, which comprised $1.6 billion of the total amounts of the Accord.
  • Producing major reports and studies. I prepared the Pre-Budget Submissions presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in 2005, 2006 and 2007 to influence the Government of Canada budget process. I also drafted the First Nations section of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives annual Alternative Federal Budget in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Partly as a result of these submissions, First Nations across Canada received budget commitments of $6.4 million in 2005, $1.2 billion in 2006 and $425 million in 2007.
  • Building relationships with government representatives to advance the Assembly’s priorities and represent the interest of First Nations in proposed programming and legislation, including the annual budget submission and the First Minister’s Meeting.
  • Developing and implementing a financial and policy planning framework to position key events and to anticipate pivotal meetings and other major activities. This enabled the National Chief and the Executive Committee to effectively advocate for First Nations in key areas, such as the federal budget, the First Minister Meeting and the historic Indian Residential School apology and settlement.

TRADE POLICY OFFICER

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Policy Secretariat, Ottawa ON, JUL 02-FEB 04

Responsible for international trade issues on fish and sea products. Key activities:

  • Conducting in-depth economic analysis on fisheries trade policy issues, including trade balance analysis and priority commodity identification to make sure that the Minister and senior executive of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were kept up to date on key developments.
  • Representing Canada at negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Canada-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and participating in talks with the Caribbean Community, Dominican Republic and Andean Community. The Canadian fisheries sector exported approximately $4.4 billion dollars of fish and fish products in 2004. The FTAA negotaiation covered $37.5 million of this amount.
  • Reviewing World Trade Organization (WTO) Accessions and Trade Policy Reviews to make sure that potential and existing members of the WTO complied with rules on fish and fish products in their trade relationships with Canada.

ACCELERATED ECONOMIST TRAINING PROGRAM (AETP)

The following positions were part of the Accelerated Economist Training Program (AETP), a select two-year program of diverse work experience divided into four six-month assignments that provided the opportunity to work with top decision makers in the Government of Canada on a number of social, economic and international policy agendas.

ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF NEGOTIATOR

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Regional Trade Policy, Ottawa ON, JAN 02-JUN 02

Responsible for assisting negotiations towards a Canada-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. Key Activities:

  • Organizing the logistics of two Canada-Singapore Free Trade negotiating sessions (one in Canada and one in Singapore).
  • Participating in negotiation sessions at Chief Negotiators table; coordinated interdepartmental strategy meetings and consultations.
  • Canada-Singapore bilateral trade is worth approximately $2.2 billion in goods and services annually, and another $3.7 billion in foreign direct investment exchanged generating trade relationships.

POLICY ANALYST

Privy Council Office, Social Development Policy Secretariat, Ottawa ON, JUL 01 – DEC 01

Responsible for working with federal government departments and the Prime Minister’s Office in providing policy advice to the Cabinet Committee on the Social Union. Key activities:

  • Ensuring policy objectives were operationally and fiscally sustainable.
  • Providing advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
  • Coordinating aspects of the Cabinet’s decision-making system including departmental policy proposals and policy analysis.
  • Analyzing legislation and made recommendations on the funding and organization of the Canadian Firearms Registry; and assisted the Canadian Custom and Revenues Agency‘s early response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

POLICY ANALYST

Finance Canada, Financial Sector Policy, Ottawa ON, JAN 01-JUN 01

Responsible for developing and analyzing financial sector policy as it related to electronic banking and new technologies. Key activities:

  • Monitoring, researching and analyzing issues about new financial services technologies in order to prepare briefs for the Minister of Finance and key government officials.
  • Assisting in the developing of regulations to successfully implement the 2001 federal Financial Services Legislation (Bill C-8).

POLICY ANALYST

Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, Government Operations, Ottawa ON, JUL 00-DEC 00

Responsible for managing and coordinating Treasury Board business for the Supreme, Federal and Tax Courts of Canada. Key activities:

  • Providing recommendations and advice to the Treasury Board on policies, directives, regulations and program expenditure proposals with respect to managing the government’s resources.
  • Drafting the 2001-2002 Main Estimates document for the various courts, an annual document outlining the courts expenditure plans for each government agency in detail.
  • Translating policies and programs approved by Cabinet into operational reality and provided with resources.
  • Notable files included a review of a report on federal judicial compensation and early proposals for  a new court buildings.

UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA (UVic) MPA CO-OP PROGRAM

UVic MPA Co-op Program consists of three, four-month work terms alternating with on-campus academic terms. Students in the MPA Co-op Program are well positioned to make an immediate contribution to the workplace. Their coursework (including team projects and case studies) contribute to their strong understanding of the culture, the processes and the issues in the public and non-profit sectors.

POLICY ANALYST

Human Resource Development Canada, Labour Market Policy Branch, Ottawa ON, SEP 99-DEC 99

  • Assisting in providing policy advice towards promoting a highly skilled and mobile labor force and an efficient and inclusive labor market, including developing proposals for labor market issues for the January 2001 Speech from the Throne that outlined the government priorities for the 2001-02 parliamentary session.

ECONOMIST

BC STATS, Government of British Columbia, Victoria BC, JAN 99-AUG 99

INFORMATION AND PRIVACY ANALYST

British Columbia Information, Science and Technology Agency, Victoria BC, MAY 98-AUG 98

  • Helping to maintain cross-government policy and procedures, standards and guidelines on access to public information and protection of privacy, including tracking of the status and outcome of all information requests and Information and Privacy Commissioner Orders Investigations and Decisions.

Click here to download my full resume (.pdf).

Career Development