2005/2006 Fellows
Wade AuCoin • Chiara Barazzuol • Alex Boston • David Brock • Hugo Cameron • Yan Cimon • Sheelagh Davis • David Eaves • Susanna Haas Lyons • Craig Kielburger• Pascale Labbé • Guillaume Lavoie • Cheryl Matthew • Karel Mayrand • Jesse Moore • Tina Piper
Wade AuCoin
Convinced of Atlantic Canada’s enormous potential for development, Cape Breton native Wade AuCoin returned there after his studies in commerce at the University of Ottawa. For two years, he worked for La Fédération Acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse (The Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia) in the Chéticamp region, where he helped many community organizations establish cultural, technological and tourism projects. Relocating to New Brunswick to complete a Master of Public Administration at l’Université de Moncton, Wade has carved out a role for himself in the policy unit at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), where he works as a policy analyst in close collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders on publication of a variety of reports on the region’s economy, the development of industrial strategies, and the preparation of information for senior officials in the Government of Canada.
Chiara Barazzuol
Chiara Barazzuol is passionate about engaged citizenship. She is committed to positive social change both at home and abroad. Long fascinated by the process through which historically marginalized groups become empowered, Chiara’s academic studies and extensive field research in Latin America have allowed her to explore the agents and conditions for social change. She has worked with indigenous peoples in Ecuador and Guatemala, served as a Minds Matter mentor while living in Harlem, facilitated anti-oppression workshops for the Vancouver Status of Women, advocated for fair trade through Café Etico, and served on the board of Co-Development Canada. Chiara is now actively involved in Canada25, a non-partisan organization that brings young Canadians’ ideas to the nation’s public policy discourse. Chiara is a committed public servant who has worked as a policy analyst at the Privy Council Office, Department of Finance, and Treasury Board Secretariat. She is currently based in Vancouver, working as a strategic advisor at Environment Canada. Chiara holds a BA from the University of British Columbia and a MA and MPhil in political science from New York’s Columbia University.
Alex Boston 
Alex is dedicated to building an economy that supports healthy communities while protecting the natural systems upon which all life depends. He directs climate protection and sustainable energy for the urban planning and design firm HB Lanarc. He works predominantly with local governments, real estate developers and senior levels of government to design policies and programs that address core organizational and community priorities. Alex led national and international climate policy at the David Suzuki Foundation. He has worked in community development across Canada and internationally. He received an Action Canada Fellowship for policy excellence and earned his MSc at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute where he was a British Council Scholar. He operates from the premise that our greatest challenges are institutional not technological. His best practice knowledge across many jurisdictions is reinforced by an appreciation of best process. He combines strategic planning, meaningful engagement, governance know-how, technical knowledge, change management and policy innovation to design pragmatic, high-impact programs.
David Brock
David Brock is the son of two pioneering families from Gravenhurst, Ontario. He is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Western Ontario. His research focuses on the influence of expert knowledge in public policy. This program of study is part of a larger research project with ArcticNet, a Network Centre of Excellence. David also sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Political Science Association. He holds degrees from Dalhousie University and the University of Saskatchewan. For two years, David lived in Iqaluit and worked as an advisor in the Government of Nunavut cabinet office. More recently, he lived in Ottawa operating his business, Circumpolar Consulting, which advises on public policy and intergovernmental relations. Previously he has worked for organizations that include Frontier College and Bethune Memorial House. Most recently, he has volunteered as an educator with Students-On-Ice. Last year he accompanied students to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Montreal, and participated in the 2005 SOI expedition from Iceland to Greenland to Nunavut.
Hugo Cameron
Hugo Cameron is committed to tackling what is arguably our generation’s greatest injustice – the disparity in economic opportunities between North and South. “Enhancing the ability of developing countries to move up the development ladder is imperative for the future peace, prosperity and sustainability of Canada and all other countries,” he says. Hugo began his career as an officer with the Canadian Forces, where he developed and conducted training programs on leadership and music for youth across Canada (he is now on supplementary reserve, holding the rank of Captain). After obtaining degrees in international relations (BA, McGill; MA, SFU), Hugo directed projects and publications on trade policy issues with the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) from 1997 to 2004. He subsequently worked with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Tanzania on preparations for trade negotiations with the European Union. Currently with the Toronto-based International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP), Hugo is implementing a program to maximize development outcomes from trade negotiations for countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. He believes the Action Canada Fellowship offers an unparalleled opportunity to promote excellence and leadership by building relationships with forward-thinking individuals across the country.
Yan Cimon
Yan Cimon, C.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of strategy at the Faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval (Québec City, Canada). He is a member of the Interuniversity Research Center on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) and an associate member of the Québec Institute for Advanced International Studies (HEI). His research focuses on the strategic management of knowledge and technology. He won the 2007 Mercure Award for the best doctoral thesis at HEC Montréal and was one of three finalists for the 2008 Udayan Rege Award for the best Canadian thesis in the administrative sciences. He was awarded an Action Canada Fellowship for 2005/2006 and has lectured to graduate and undergraduate students and executives alike, both in Canada and abroad. He is a former Commanding Officer of 712 Communications Squadron (Montreal). Furthermore, he has worked in the real-time embedded systems unit of a major defence and aerospace multi-national company. Among other outlets, his research was published in Decision Support Systems and the Journal of Knowledge Management.
Sheelagh Davis
Sheelagh Davis believes that we all hold the power to create change. Working as a popular educator and organizer, her efforts have focused on building this capacity and coupling it to a vision of ‘change’ that reflects principles of justice, equity, and sustainability. Combining this passion with skills in process design, facilitation, and collaborative leadership, Sheelagh has had the rich and privileged opportunity to participate in efforts to address issues of social and environmental justice, human rights, globalization and democracy-building in communities across Canada, throughout Latin America, and in her native South Africa. Most recently, she has undertaken human rights-focused work in rural and urban Mexico; used theatre and dialogue as tools for encouraging public engagement around issues of water protection and governance; and developed a justice-focused international youth leadership program. Currently, Sheelagh works in Vancouver as an educator for the BC Nurses Union, focused on building nurses’ capacity to actively engage in the crucial public issue arena of health care. In recent years she had the opportunity to reflect on and deepen her work through undertaking an interdisciplinary Master’s of Environmental Studies degree at York University.
David Eaves
David is driven to renew Canada’s role in the world and Canadians’ role in Canada. “I see Canada as a model, an experiment where Canadians, and the world’s citizens, can exchange ideas in pursuit of building a more inclusive and just society,” says the Vancouver native who has a BA from Queen’s and a Master’s of International Relations degree from Oxford. He has recently concluded work with Vantage Partners, a spin-off of the Harvard Negotiation Project, where he was lead author of the Canada25 report “From Middle to Model Power: Recharging Canada’s Role in the World.” He is a frequent guest speaker on this topic, engaging students, academics and policymakers at, among other places, Mt. Alison, UBC, Queen’s, McGill, the Privy Council Office and Foreign Affairs Canada. Passionate about conflict resolution, David believes any problem can be solved, even when parties appear to violently disagree – a belief that guides his actions as a negotiation consultant to Fortune 500 firms, a Canada25 organizer, and a volunteer mediator in South Boston courtrooms. Currently on contract as a policy advisor with the Privy Council Office, in September David will begin a year at McGill as Canada’s 2005 Sauvé Scholar. He plans to research and write on Canadian foreign policy, network-based organizations and civic engagement.
Susanna Haas Lyons
Susanna Haas Lyons is a citizen engagement practitioner and communications strategist. She has over six years experience with some of North America’s largest and most complex public participation projects. Most recently, Susanna served as Communications Manager and Program Associate at AmericaSpeaks, a leader in methods that bring together citizens and decision-makers to create better policy. Susanna also developed AmericaSpeaks’ online citizen engagement strategy. Earlier, Susanna worked as a Stakeholder Engagement Consultant for business, government and non-profit organizations. Notably, Susanna served as Project Coordinator with the British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. A masters candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, the Environment and Sustainability, Susanna’s research focuses on collaborative decision-making on sustainability planning. She holds a certificate in Public Participation from the International Association for Public Participation and was a 2005 Action Canada Fellow. Susanna has a B.A. in Communications from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and was a participant of the school’s inaugural Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue. Susanna is a requested speaker on topics of citizen participation in governance and the use of the Internet in civic life.
Craig Kielburger
Children’s rights advocate Craig Kielburger believes that “We are the Generation that We have been Waiting For!” In 1995, at age 12, he founded Free The Children, a network of ‘children helping children through education’. FTC’s international development projects have since improved the lives of more than one million children around the world, including the construction of over 400 primary schools in developing countries and distribution of more than 200,000 school and health kits in 39 countries. In 1999, with his brother Marc, Craig co-founded Leaders Today, an organization that provides training in leadership and global citizenship to more than 250,000 students annually across North America. Craig, a native of Toronto, is the author or co-author of four best-selling books, with translations in eight languages. He has spent the past 10 years addressing United Nations gatherings and government bodies, and has traveled to more than 40 countries speaking out for children’s rights. He also co-chaired The Commission on Globalization. The approximately 30 co-chairs, including Mikhail Gorbachev and George Soros, drafted white papers for the United Nations. Craig is currently a student at the University of Toronto, where he is pursuing a specialization in peace and conflict studies. Craig has twice been nominated for a Nobel peace prize.
Pascale Labbé
Pascale Labbé is completing her Master’s degree in International Relations at Laval University, where she is specializing in the rights of indigenous peoples. A Quebec City native, she has an interest in Canadian foreign policy and has been active in the advisory forum set up by Foreign Affairs Canada. During her graduate studies, Pascale worked as a research assistant at the Centre d’Etudes Interaméricaines (CEI), then at the Centre Interuniversitaire d’Etudes et de Recherches Autochtones (CIÉRA). She has a wide variety of international experience, including student internships, field studies, volunteering and student exchanges in Latin America and Germany. Pascale is also very active in human rights education, founding the Rights and Democracy Delegation at Laval University in 2004, the first official unit of the Rights and Democracy organization’s inter-university network. In that context, she has worked to raise awareness about the experiences of refugees and displaced persons, and about globalization’s impact on human rights. She recently completed an internship with the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (CHRF) and is in the midst of a practicum with Québec’s International Relations Department, where she is working to organize the Climate Leaders Summit, an event to be held during the UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal. Pascale is also a ballet teacher and a musician.
Guillaume Lavoie
Guillaume is from the Saguenay Region in Quebec, Canada. His expertise lies in government relations and public policy analysis, notably in federal regimes. Having lived and work on four continents and visited over 30 countries, he has consulted for the public, private and NGO sector, in Canada and abroad. Also actively involved in the field of democratic governance, Guillaume has participated in over 15 exploratory or electoral observation missions on behalf of governments, INGOs and International Organizations. Resolved that his experience and international network should further the success of young Québec leaders and their organizations beyond the borders of Québec, he founded and directs “Mission Leadership Quebec”. This initiative encourages young Quebec leaders to develop new networks and opportunities in countries and regions of strategic interest to Quebec and Canada by emphasizing the identification and networking of future decision makers who in the next decade will assume leadership roles in government, business and large organizations. Guillaume holds a Masters degree in International Public Administration from the National School of Public Administration in Montréal, as well as a B.A. in Industrial Relations and Certificates in Law and Business Administration from Laval University, in Québec City. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Vice President, Federal and International Affairs of the Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ) – the largest youth group in Quebec. The first French Canadian to become a Sauvé Scholar (2007), Guillaume is also a Fellow of the public policy leadership program, Action Canada (2005) and of the international leadership program of the Forum of Federations (2002). Guillaume is fluent in French, English and Spanish and has a working knowledge of Catalan. For the past five years, he has been a frequent radio and television commentator on international affairs and the U.S. presidential elections.
Cheryl Matthew 
Cheryl is Secwepemc from the Simpcw First Nation in British Columbia. She is passionate about ensuring the involvement of Aboriginal people in policy and research in Canada. She currently works with the Office of the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians of INAC to develop an Aboriginal Policy Research Network. Prior to that she was the founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Native Policy and Research in Vancouver, BC. She has 15 years of experience working in the Aboriginal community in both on and off reserve contexts with organizations such as the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, the BC Assembly of First Nations, and the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council. She started a consulting company in 1999 for research, policy analysis, facilitation and project management. She is currently a doctoral student in Anthropology at Carleton University. She has a BA in Anthropology and Sociology from Simon Fraser University and an MA in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University. She has served on many Boards of Directors including President of Urban Native Youth Association, a Founding Member of the Assembly of First Nations National Youth Council, President of the First Nations Student Association of Thompson Rivers University, Aboriginal Education Project of the BC Human Rights Commission, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – BC Office.
Karel Mayrand 
Karel Mayrand is Director general for Quebec at the David Suzuki Foundation and a member of the organisation’s management team. Before joining the Foundation, he was co-founder of Unisfera International Centre, a sustainability think-tank, where he created Planetair, a leading Canadian provider of carbon offsets and climate solutions. In the past twelve years Karel has advised various United Nations agencies on sustainability issues, as well as Pierre Marc Johnson, former Premier of Quebec, on globalization and sustainability. He is regularly invited to comment on environmental issues in the media. Karel is co-author of Governing Global Desertification, published in 2006 by Ashgate Aldershot (London). He is an Action Canada fellow (2005) and was finalist in 20008 for the Arista Prize as Social entrepreneur of the year in Quebec.
Jesse Moore
Jesse Moore sees nascent opportunity at the intersection of the private sector and international development: “Whenever people from business and development get together and actually listen to one another, a whole world of possibility opens up.” As Director of Private Sector and Development for CARE Canada – one of the country’s largest humanitarian organizations – Jesse has traveled to more than 20 developing countries, spoken at numerous international conferences and business schools, and consulted with the Minister for International Cooperation on fostering enterprise solutions to poverty. Jesse previously worked as a management consultant for Monitor Company and was selected by Maclean’s magazine in 1997 as one of 100 Canadians to Watch. Raised in Toronto, he spent four years studying communications at the University of North Carolina courtesy of a prestigious Morehead Scholarship. Jesse has since lost all traces of a southern accent, though it periodically re-emerges when he gets overly enthusiastic about college basketball games or a tall glass of Carolina sweet tea.
Tina Piper
Tina Piper’s driving goal is to understand and improve the way society distributes property and new technologies. After completing engineering science at the University of Toronto as a National Scholar in 1998, she returned to Halifax to complete a law degree at Dalhousie University. She then pursued a graduate degree in law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Her doctorate explored how patents were often irrelevant or damaging to the historical development of many medical technologies. Tina is currently clerking for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Next year she will commence a professorship at McGill University and also work as a lead consultant for a non-governmental organization, developing an alternate, equitable system of patents and copyright law. Throughout her career, Tina has been intensely involved in human rights and equity issues. She continues to work as a consultant on human rights and development issues for indigenous communities in Central America; as a legal adviser to developing countries before the World Intellectual Property Organization; and has worked on government and civil society projects in the areas of human rights law, women’s health, equality, immigration, poverty, international trade and immigration law.
