At TNC, our goal is to help organizations and communities generate the information, tools, and resources they need to improve their work and create strategic change. At TNC, we believe that:
- Information should be useful and should inspire clear actions
- We share responsibility in the change process.
- Complex social issues require collective action. Our projects build meaningful connections between individuals, organizations, and communities.
Each member of our team brings unique strengths to achieving that shared goal.
Our Full-Time Staff
I am a social researcher, program evaluator and facilitator with more than 20 years experience. Jason and I started Taylor Newberry Consulting because we wanted to help organizations translate evidence into insight and action. For us, that means building strong, collaborative working relationships with our clients, and designing our projects to be rigorous while also being action-focused and accessible. I often work with grantmakers and collaborative planning tables in the public benefit sector, helping them set the stage for more meaningful evaluation work and better evidence based planning. I also work on a number of anti-poverty and food security projects.
In addition to my role as principal consultant at TNC, I am also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph, where I teach program evaluation. As Resident Evaluation Expert at the Ontario Nonprofit Network, I frequently blog on issues related to evaluation in the sector. I have a Ph.D. in social and developmental psychology from the University of Guelph.
Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn.
Read Andrew’s writing for the Ontario Nonprofit Network.
Follow Andrew on Twitter
I am a co-founder and principal consultant here at Taylor Newberry Consulting. After receiving my Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology from the University of Guelph, I set out to apply my new skills and knowledge in community based research, program evaluation, and community interventions. I was passionate about several areas of work, particularly mental health and addictions, disability rights and supports, and general issues of social justice and social equality. Its been 20 years since these early days and I am fortunate to have worked on over a hundred different projects ranging from small local program evaluations to large and complex systems evaluations, and many things in between. I’m still heavily involved in mental health and disability rights but have expanded my work into early childhood development, youth engagement, housing and homelessness, food security, cultural diversity, and many other areas. I’m still learning and thriving on tackling new and complex issues about how people and communities attain health, wellness, and positive growth. In the past 8 or so years, my focus has noticeably changed, as have the projects at TNC. I find myself doing much more work in systems analysis and design, by helping organizational partnerships, government, and communities identify ways in which to arrange and deliver more integrated, coordinated, and responsive services and supports. Now more than ever, what we call “research” has evolved into a much deeper and more meaningful process of community engagement, knowledge sharing, and systemic change.
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
Why do you work at TNC? Working at TNC is an opportunity to build great relationships with our community partners and with each other. I think we really connect with our clients by turning large amounts of complicated information into clear lessons and messages for them. This helps to build their capacity as community members to better meet the needs of their stakeholders, which is really what we’re all about. The crucial mix of skill sets on the TNC team helps us meet this goal. Not only do we have very technical research, community engagement, and facilitation skills, we have the soft skills required to truly walk alongside our clients as the project unfolds. This helps us produce work that is useful in a practical way, inspires action, and sparks new connections in our communities.
That’s why I’m proud to be a part of the TNC team.
Career highlights: 8+ years experience conducting applied research, program design, and evaluation projects with government, health and social service, community, and academic stakeholders. M.A. in Community Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University and past Wilderness Therapy Instructor- working with youth involved with the law. Led the development of the Community Research Ethics Office in Kitchener, the first office of its kind in Canada to provide ethical review of community research projects. Primary passion is working with youth and on projects supporting the healthy development and wellbeing of Canada’s young people. Has led local, provincial, and national projects that have used research as a tool to connect youth with their community and to engage youth with the issues affecting their lives. Experienced educator and facilitator.
Connect with Norah on LinkedIn.
Karla is a Senior Research Consultant at Taylor Newberry Consulting, where she has worked on over 30 community-based research projects with organizations across Canada. She finds it incredibly rewarding to use her skills in research and facilitation to build organizational capacity through learning and promote “aha” moments for clients about their programs and initiatives. Drawing on knowledge and skills she has gained over the past 6 years in the field, she has extensive experience facilitating workshops about evaluation design and practice for non-profits. In the process she has learned a tremendous amount about how non-profit organizations and systems function in the social service world.
She is committed to forming strong working relationships with non-profit organizations and their staff, and she devotes considerable time to getting to know programs, organizational context, and all of the stakeholders involved. She employs a collaborative and participatory approach with organizations to make sure that projects will meet their needs and generate evidence that can inform action. She has led projects at the national and local level on topics related to poverty reduction, food security, aging, mental health, and youth engagement. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Guelph.
Connect with Karla on LinkedIn
I am passionate about promoting community well-being through processes that foster participant empowerment and build agency capacity. Through my experience working in community settings and my education in the Community Psychology Masters program at Wilfrid Laurier University, I have developed a set of competencies that I bring to my work at TNC. Before starting with TNC, I had the pleasure of working with schools to develop promotion of child and youth mental health; I worked in the housing and homelessness sector helping agencies align their approaches with a Housing First model of service delivery; and I explored youth leadership to promote grassroots environmental action-taking and build municipal capacity to empower youth as leaders. Through this work, I developed an ethical and reflective practice that I draw on to carry out community-centered research and program development.
Since joining the TNC team, I have focused on listening to and engaging our clients in learning processes. I have been consistently rewarded by my work with Taylor Newberry Consulting and look forward to continuing to share the excitement of exploring methods with my colleagues, as well as learning the unique perspectives of our clients through local and national level projects.
Connect with Laine on LinkedIn
Vashisht is a Research Consultant at Taylor Newberry Consulting, where he is currently working on projects in the arts and non-profit sectors. He is passionate about using empirical research and evaluation methodologies to help clients improve the effectiveness of their initiatives and programs. He particularly enjoys working on program implementation, outcome and impact evaluations, in community and non-profit contexts. He believes that helping improve such initiatives to build stronger, more inclusive and sustainable communities is a professional extension of his personal commitment to the principles of egalitarianism and social justice.
Vashisht has over 3 years of experience working on diverse applied research and evaluation projects, including evaluations of post-secondary admissions processes, and community well-being initiatives. He is proficient in utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods, in order to produce useful and actionable results for organizations and the communities that they serve. He has a collaborative and empathic consulting style, and diligently focuses on building rapport with non-profit organizations and their staff. Vashisht is working on further honing his facilitation and knowledge dissemination skills, and is eager to help organizations build their evaluation capacity through workshops, coaching and other learning exercises.
He graduated in 2018 with a Master’s degree in Social Psychology, from Ryerson University. His research thesis explored prejudice and discrimination towards religious and diet-based minorities (Sikhs and vegans/vegetarians).
.
Connect with Vashisht on LinkedIn
Our Part Time Staff and Associates
Ben Liadsky. Ben is an Evaluation Consultant with TNC. He has previously worked on projects related to organizational learning and evaluation, the state of evaluation in Ontario’s nonprofit sector, and the Ontario Nonprofit Network’s Sector Driven Evaluation Strategy. In addition, he previously taught the Policy and Program Evaluation course as part of Carleton University’s Masters of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program. Ben also works at The Counselling Foundation of Canada as their Program Officer.
Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.
Cassandra is a community-based Co-Researcher at Taylor Newberry Consulting. She is currently leading data collection for the Market Greens program evaluation in Midland, Ontario. Market Greens is a pilot initiative led by Community Food Centres Canada that is intended to increase access to, and consumption of, affordable fruits and vegetables at local produce markets by providing fruit and vegetable subsidies to eligible families over 20 weeks. As part of the evaluation, Cassandra connects with families on a regular basis to talk about their experiences with the program, and the impact it is having on their lives.
Cassandra is also the Indigenous Program Assistant at Chigamik Community Health Center which is a non-profit organization that strives to support clients in a holistic approach. She facilitates programs and ceremonies that are connected to the Indigenous peoples within her community, supports the mental health team, and works at the Miijim Market every Monday. During her work on the Market Greens evaluation she has learned that evaluation of programs is crucial when it comes to promoting success, and has applied what she has learned through the evaluation to making changes at the Miijim Market. She has completed her Social Service Worker diploma at Fleming College and is currently enrolled in the Bachelors of Social work at Lakehead University.