Urbanism / Strategy & Design / Creative Facilitation
I am a design thinker,
creative facilitator,
project coordinator
and urban strategist.
I work with communities and organizations to research, design, develop, and execute projects that promote creative, collaborative and sustainable approaches to city building.
Current project: Urban Ecology Winnipeg / Learning from the Land, In the City. A series of seasonal walks exploring the connection between people, place and Winnipeg's urban ecosystems.
Research Strategy
Planning & Design
Public Engagement
Workshops Exhibits
I use design as a tool to bring people together to explore urban and sustainability issues, facilitate workshops that help people generate creative ideas, and develop plans and strategies that connect the dots between needs and opportunities. The work in this portfolio contains a mix of self-initiated creative projects, professional and client work, and academic work.
CV
Strengths & Skills
International and Canadian experience working in the urban planning, innovation and built environment fields.
Proficient at crafting briefs, scoping documents and proposals for built environment projects.
Detailed project coordination skills with a talent for developing projects that meet strategic objectives.
Exceptional analytical research skills with the ability to synthesize complex information and extract key insights.
Inspired strategic thinking skills and with a talent for connecting the dots between needs and opportunities.
Articulate and structured writing skills with the ability to build compelling stories around project concepts.
Strong graphic design skills to visually communicate ideas and layout content using InDesign and Illustrator.
Creative workshop and facilitation skills to engage stakeholders in collaborative ideation & problem solving.
Education & Training
Postgraduate / Interdisciplinary Design Strategy, Institute without Boundaries
The IWB teaches strategic design and systems thinking skills for tackling complex urban and sustainability challenges. Learning is hands-on, collaborative, and based around a real-world client project.
Certificate / Multimedia Communications, Yukon College
Technical training in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign layout, HTML/CSS, video and audio editing.
Undergraduate / Bachelor of Humanities, Carleton University
Multidisciplinary education in history, philosophy, religion, literature and art.
Summer School / Inclusive Urbanism, Aalto University. Finland, 2016.
Week-long charrette in Finland focused on developing design strategies for re-connecting Jyväskylä city
centre with its waterfront divided by rail lines and brownfield industrial lands. View project concept.
Summer School / Urban IxD: Designing Interactions In the Networked City. Croatia, 2013.
10 days of workshops, lectures and design studios exploring the role of digital technology on the production of
space, place and community in the ‘smart cities’ of the future. View final project here.
Experience
Consultant / Strategy & Engagement
HTFC Planning and Design. Winnipeg, Canada. (October 2018 - August 2019)
Working in collaboration with the Planning and Public Engagement teams, I played a leading role in the delivery of a comprehensive Recreation Master Plan for the City of Brandon. This was the first recreation planning exercise Brandon had undertaken in nearly 20 years and involved extensive public engagement, stakeholder workshops, asset inventories and trends analysis. I was responsible for organizing and co-facilitating two public engagement open houses and one workshop with City counsellors and senior Municipal leaders. I was also responsible for analyzing and synthesizing all available information into a new Recreation Master Plan for the City that defined a new vision for the provision of recreation services, guiding principles for service delivery, strategic directions and priorities for the next 10-15 years.
Consultant / Foresight, Research and Innovation
Arup Associates, Foresight and Innovation. London, UK. (November 2017 - July 2018)
Foresight is Arup’s internal think-tank that helps clients and the wider company think about the future of the built environment and understand the drivers of change shaping innovation around the world. Working as a full-time external consultant, I contributed research, analysis, strategic thinking, and design to a diverse range of projects. The last project I worked on was a foresight study for Hong Kong Post exploring the future trends shaping the global parcel logistics industry with recommendations for the design of a new airmail sorting facility.
Consultant / Cultural Placemaking
Futurecity Cultural Placemaking Agency. London, UK. (July – September 2017)
Developed cultural placemaking strategies for local and international clients through contextual research, stakeholder interviews, case study reviews, policy and trends analysis. Conducted site visits and met with developers and design teams to scope project needs and define placemaking opportunities. Synthesised research insights into site-specific recommendations and packaged these for clients as reports and presentations. Key project included contributing to a strategic report for the City of Boston on the creation of a new Cultural District, and advising property developers on placemaking strategies for a number of new residential developments across the UK.
Contract / Exhibition Designer
Future Cities Catapult. London, UK. (April - June 2017)
Responsible for overseeing the design, specification, production and installation of an exhibition exploring the 'smart city' digital trends transforming the UK planning system. Developed a narrative vision for the exhibit based around four thematic zones taking into consideration audience experience and flows through the exhibit space, sightlines and multiple scales of engagement. Developed exhibition content (text and visuals) in consultation with the Programme Director. Content included a mix of provocative ideas about the future of the planning system, quotes from industry leaders, infographics illustrating challenges facing the planning system, and use-case stories for six featured projects. Oversaw project timelines working to a very tight deadline. Organized daily stand-up meetings with staff from various departments including facilities, events, communications, project managers and senior executives. Oversaw printing and installation of the exhibit including commissioning custom display stands, hiring installers, ordering specialised equipment and hardware, and sourcing materials from local and international suppliers.
Internship / Design Researcher
Future Cities Catapult. London, UK. (November 2016 - April 2017)
Future of Planning Open-Call
Supported the delivery a £200K ‘Future of Planning’ accelerator targeted at helping municipalities and start-ups prototype digital tools to make the UK planning system more open, agile and citizen centred. Collaborated with the design research team to identify challenges within the UK urban planning system through interviews with planners, local authorities and citizens, and through desk research. Designed and facilitated a user journey mapping workshop for participants and applicants of the accelerator to understand how we could improve the program and our back-end support processes. Identified pain points and opportunities for improvement and translated these insights into a service blueprint with recommendations for improving the second round of the accelerator. Designed and facilitated ideation workshops that brought prospective applicants from government and industry together to explore opportunities for collaboration.
Contract / Research & Project Coordinator
Dr. Ian Mauro, University of Winnipeg. Canada. (September 2015 - July 2016)
Dr. Mauro is an award winning Canadian researcher and documentary film maker who uses film and digital storytelling to engage non-academic audiences around environmental and community development issues. Devised the programme for Oceans Canada, a major five-day interdisciplinary conference focused on setting the agenda for a national strategy to manage the health of Canada’s Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coastal regions. The conference required an outside eye to bring a cross-disciplinary perspective. Developed a schedule of panel discussions, roundtables, and workshops that enabled academics from marine biology, social sciences and cultural anthropology to discuss issues in a holistic way. Facilitated a ‘Knowledge Mobilisation’ workshop at the conference to help academics develop personalized communication plans to disseminate their research to policy makers and other relevant stakeholders. Assisted in the production of a short documentary film showcasing the innovative regeneration of one of Canada’s poorest public housing estates. In addition to devising the narrative arc of the film, scouting shoot locations, and managing production schedules, I interviewed a dozen local residents and community leaders.