1) What is your official current position and title?

I’m presently a lecturer in Communications and Public Policy at St Thomas University and a PhD student at UNB in Interdisciplinary Studies.  Previously, I served as Director of Policy to the federal Minister of State (Seniors).

2) What is your educational background?

I hold a BPhil in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Renaissance College (UNB); a BA in Human Rights and Religious Studies from STU; a MA in Public Ethics (Moral Philosophy) from St Paul University/University of Ottawa; and am in coursework for my PhD.

3) Talk a little about your career path?  Where did your passion for the research/work that you do originate and how did it develop?

I began my career while studying toward my undergraduate degrees.  At that time I was serving as the National President of a body of tertiary students, and represented an international body to the United Nations.  In this work, I had the opportunity to learn-on-the-go how to create and advance policy goals with national and international bodies.  I then transferred these skills to Parliament Hill where I began working as a political staffer to a Minister, and I fell in love with seniors policy.

Preceding that, I initially found my passion for public policy and the need to study it in both theory and practice while studying at Renaissance College.  This was the approach I brought forward while working and studying in Ottawa.  As I advanced seniors policy files, I came to see the similarities among the challenges facing young people and older adults (i.e.: discrimination based on age).

However, it was truly working with seniors themselves that my passion for seniors policy and working with older adults flourished.  Their stories and passion for life sparked a personal mission to help improve policies serving seniors while seeking to ensure that older adults are viewed and treated as integral members of our communities, and society writ-large.  I’m now acting on that in the way that is most natural to me: research and policy development.

4) Tell us about one or two of your current projects?

My major project at the moment is my dissertation, which will examine how aging policies in Canada could better respond to the needs and realities of seniors, and recognize that older adults are active and integral members of society.  I’m focused on a life-course perspective that would examine policies in Canada from a ‘womb-to-tomb’ perspective, rather than by age brackets or cohorts.  My work in this regard is both a theoretical examination of the system, while proposing practical models; as an analogy I’m using Forestry to demonstrate how a life course approach could work in practice.

My secondary project is mapping out relevant pan-Canadian aging policies to develop a comprehensive yet readable source of information for both seniors and caregivers.  The goal of this exercise is to share in an easy-to-read fashion the policies, forms, and rationale behind each to de-mystify the tomes of information that are available.

5) How do you see your research/work in terms of possibly contributing to evidence-based public policy?

My research focuses on a systems based approach, as there are challenges within the models presently used at both the federal and provincial levels.  I posit that if the model itself is strong and effective, there will be more room for evidence policy.  Further, I map out the machinery of government involved such that others may suggest or advance specific evidence-based or evidence-informed policies.

It is my goal that this approach can help contribute to evidence-based and evidence-informed policies by making the frameworks and processes more clear for those outside of government structures, enabling concrete policy solutions to come forth from a variety of sources and voices.

6) Discuss any past achievements that were significant to your professional path?  Have any contributed to the promotion of evidence-based public policy?

Participating in 21inc as a member of the 2008 cohort was significant in my professional path as it allowed the opportunity to see the multiple challenges New Brunswick is facing, and solidified my interest and passion for social policy and its importance in policy discussions.

7) Describe in a couple of sentences your involvement with NBSPRN and how your relationship with the Network has contributed to your research/work and/or to social/economic policy?

While my relationship with the NBSPRN is a new one, it is fantastic to be in a place that has an organization devoted to talking about social policy, and connecting scholars, policy makers, and the community together.