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.
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.
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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.
I have 4+years of experience in program design and evaluation, with a strong background in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. I have an M.A degree in Applied Social Psychology from the University of Guelph and I’m currently completing my Ph.D. in the same program.
At TNC I’m provided with the opportunity to learn more about the great work our clients and other groups are engaged in, and to apply my own skills to help them to learn more about themselves. It’s a fantastic reciprocal learning experience. At the end of the day it’s a wonderful feeling knowing that the work I have done has made a meaningful contribution to the community (both locally and across Canada).
Connect with Karla on LinkedIn
I’m a PhD student in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Guelph. Having done my Masters in Medical Science Research at the University of Toronto and worked at Sick Kids hospital in Global Child Health Research, I have a background working in various areas of health research (including community health, mental health, and nutritional health) and have extensive training in both qualitative and quantitative methods. I have over 4 years experience using participatory and community engaged methodologies, facilitating workshops and focus groups, doing needs assessments, program evaluations, and outcome measurement design. I’m proficient in French and Spanish, and have been able to use that in some of my previous research work. At TNC, I’ve gained experience working in the areas of youth engagement, collective measurement, relationship building, literacy, and mental health, amongst other areas.
Working at TNC has been very rewarding for me as I’ve been able to work with diverse communities learning about their many strengths, where we get to see the impact of our work through our community engagement and systems-level change. I’ve learned a lot about how supportive a workplace can be, and feel lucky to be working with such an amazing team!
Connect with Oriana 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