NouLAB Welcomes New Director

NouLAB had a very successful first year working with passionate multi-stakeholder teams to tackle complex issues in New Brunswick. Thirty-five individuals in seven lab teams gathered around issue such as food sovereignty, rebuilding rural NB, newcomer employment, adult literacy, social housing, policy approaches to wellness, and healthy aging. These teams took a deep dive into the true causes of these problems and came up with prototyped solutions which they pitched to Ministers, Deputies and senior officials at GNB’s Innovation Week. The NouLAB team presented the lab process at the Institute of Public Administration conference in Toronto this past June and the lab team on Healthy Aging produced a framework for Community Readiness Workbook. NouLAB will continue to support these lab teams as they take the next steps in testing their prototypes.

The coordination team learned a lot from this process and is busy developing the next iteration of NouLAB for the 2016-2017 year. Jake Wildman-Sisk has relocated for an opportunity to work with Recode at the McConnell Foundation in Montreal and he has passed along the reins to Amanda Hachey.

Amanda’s strengths are in facilitation, public engagement, systems thinking, sustainability, and process design. She believes that in order to solve our biggest problems we need to 1) understand them from diverse perspectives to see the whole system, 2) we need to listen to each other with curiosity and an open mind and 3) we need to experiment. NouLAB is the convenor of the processes to dig into root causes, prototype, innovate lasting solutions, and change the way we tackle big problems.

Amanda grew up in rural New Brunswick. She began her career working in international economic development and gained a global perspective during projects in the US, France, Panama, Vietnam, and Sweden. After returning to New Brunswick, she was driven to make Atlantic Canada realize its potential and worked with co-operatives, businesses, and communities on strategic processes to integrate sustainability. Amanda has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of New Brunswick Saint John and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.   She is a founding member of La Bikery Co-operative and a board member of OMISTA Credit Union, both in Moncton, New Brunswick.

NBSPRN Also Welcomes New Community Engagement Coordinator, Bethany Deshpande

Alongside the addition of Amanda Hachey as Director of NouLAB, NBSPRN also welcomes Bethany Deshpande as the new Community Engagement Coordinator. Bethany will be working alongside Amanda Hachey of NouLAB and Symone Jennings of the Pond-Deshpande Centre to support the NouLAB and Student Ambassador Program initiatives, as well as promoting the work of NBSPRN and increasing collaboration with our community partners.

Bethany recently moved to New Brunswick from Quebec City, where she completed her PhD in Biology in June 2016. She brings with her an abundance of research and entrepreneurial experience. Bethany has worked as a Faculty member of the SHAD enrichment program at Université Laval, and as a website designer and developer for several entrepreneurial projects and initiatives. She is passionate about entrepreneurial education, community-building, and change-making.

Please welcome Amanda and Bethany to our team and don’t hesitate to reach out to them via e-mail (adhachey@gmail.com, bethany@rrps-nb-sprn.ca) to connect.