At Taylor Newberry Consulting we are grateful to be able to connect to incredibly talented, passionate and dedicated individuals. We are especially fortunate that some of these individuals have chosen to call themselves “TNCers”. We are continually inspired by members of our staff who share laughs, values, and learnings. Periodically, our website will feature a different member of our staff who will share a little bit about their work and a glimpse into their life.
Andrew recently sat down with Karla who celebrated her 10 year anniversary in 2024. Together they chatted and reflected on her 10 years at TNC. Keep reading to find out what she had to say.
Andrew: We’re here interviewing Karla on the occasion of her 10th anniversary as an employee at TNC. So welcome Karla.
We are excited to learn a little bit more about you and a little bit more about your story at TNC. So maybe we should start with where it began. What do you remember about your first day at TNC?
Karla: I was thinking about this and I truly cannot remember my actual first day. What I do remember though is my interview with Jason (Newberry) for my practicum through the University of Guelph. He walked in and just immediately made me feel so comfortable and just welcomed into the TNC world. He was talking about music and these really interesting projects. There was the SSN project, the Family Violence conference, which is what I was going to be evaluating for my practicum, but then he was also talking about work with CMHA Peel and said that I could get involved with that, and so I left feeling really, really excited.
Andrew: Yeah. So at that point, had you considered a career doing this kind of thing, or was it sort of a new idea to you?
Karla: I had taken the program evaluation course through the University, and I think that’s when I was like, oh, it just clicked for me. I was like, this is what I want to do. I think leading up to that point, I actually had no idea. I was in this PhD program, and knew I didn’t want to go into academia, but I didn’t really know what I could do beyond that. So I was just kind of searching, and then when I got connected to TNC, knowing that you did evaluation and research, I was just super excited and then once I actually started doing it was like, yeah, this is for me.
Andrew: Oh, that’s great. You’d already finished your Master’s at that point, but you were relatively early on in your PhD, right?
Karla: Yeah, six months into it, I think
Andrew: Six months into it. So if that version of Karla could see the organization now, what would she say? What would her impressions be?
Karla: I think we’re just so much stronger. Not that I thought we were a weak organization or anything at the time, but things have changed a lot over the past 10 years. I know when I joined, there were only four full-time staff. TNC has grown considerably. We’ve just grown and grown in really wonderful ways. We’ve welcomed so many amazing people into the team as well. But I feel like overall, we’re just more intentional about our work. We have more space to think about the work that we’re doing, which is really nice. We’re focusing more on learning too. I feel like I learned a ton at TNC, but now we have these whole learning sessions for all of the staff members, which I think is really cool. And that wasn’t necessarily there before. I felt like our staff meetings, we were talking about our projects and we were definitely learning, but we weren’t intentionally teaching one another.
Andrew: What else would she say about the organization, do you think?
Karla: I mean, she would be really proud, not knowing that a pandemic was coming, but I mean it did, and just being really proud of how we worked during that time that we were willing to adapt to really meet our clients and their capacity. Doing some things I think pro bono as well, which I thought was just really important at that time, just to help organizations through the crises that they were facing. And I think we probably learned a lot about ourselves. I mean, we also went entirely remote, out of necessity, but also we’ve kind of stuck that way as well and learned how to do that. I feel like we’re still pretty connected as a team. So yeah, I think she’d be really proud of what we’ve done and just, I don’t know all of the ways we’ve grown too.Yeah. Our network has grown so much and we’re just connected to such amazing organizations.
Andrew: What would she say if she could see you personally now?
Karla: I think she would be like, wow, that person has grown in confidence so much. I remember coming in and being just, I don’t know, nervous about things. I had only really taken a course. I’d never done much beyond that. So I just think the personal growth there again, I would be really proud of that. The fact that I’m in a supervisory and management role as well, and so I’m supporting newer team members, which I absolutely love doing. It’s one of my favorite things. And then also being on the management team, helping to shape the direction of TNC, which I think is so cool and something that I’m so excited about. And I don’t know if at that time I ever imagined that was something that I would be doing. I think I was just so new to it, but I had really great mentors over these 10 years.
Andrew: So she’d be pretty impressed. What’s your favorite thing about working at TNC?
Karla: It’s the people. Our team is filled with brilliant people, and I’m always learning something from them that helps me with work or just in life in general. They’re all just so interesting, and I feel like every time I connect with one of them, I learn something new about them too. And then there’s also our clients, again, such brilliant, amazing, passionate people that inspire me while I’m at work and again, also teach me so many different things. I feel like the content areas I work in, I’ve just become so much stronger in them as a result of working with our clients. I’ve learned more about how their organizations work, which I think has made me really attuned to making sure we are aligned with their capacity for evaluation. I’ve changed the way that I work and approach evaluation just as a result of some of the experiences with them. I’m then able to carry all of those lessons forward to working with other clients.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s great. It’s a hard one to answer, thinking about such a big block of time over 10 years, but what’s a professional success story that you would like to share?
Karla: For a while now, TNC has taught part of the Program Evaluation Certificate at Laurier. There were workshops that you and I were teaching together, which was really cool. I was like, oh my gosh, I get to do this with Andrew Taylor. This is so awesome. There came a time where I was going to do it totally by myself. So the first one I was doing was on logic models and theories of change, and I just couldn’t believe that I’d reached a point in my career where people were looking to me as an expert on this, and I was actually qualified to be teaching part of a course. And just knowing that you felt confident in me being there doing it by myself, and it went really well. I felt like everyone was learning something just based on the questions that they were asking me. And I took some time so that the students could just work on their own logic models. I went around to each of them and being able to answer their questions and see those light-bulb moments was really beautiful. So I felt like I was actually helping them.
Andrew: Are there certain projects that when you think of the 10 years, you think, okay, that was a big one.
Karla: I think the evaluation of the community food systems grants program with United Way Greater Toronto was one of those. So that started in I think 2019, so I would’ve been five years into my career with TNC, and I felt like, again, I was a project lead, which was also really cool. I was learning about more food systems. I had done work with The SEED, for example, and I learned a lot through them, but I felt like with this project, I just learned so much more that I was able to carry through to other projects too. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit early on in that project, and so I think it was then when I was just seeing what organizations were facing and that evaluation was not going to be their number one priority, understandably. But I did really start thinking about how we could make things easier on organizations and still do really valuable work. I think it also helped that the team at United Way Greater Toronto was just so amazing. Even during the pandemic, one of them threw an online baby shower for me, which was just like, I don’t know. It just made me feel like even more so that the relationships that we were building are just so important. I actually think about that project and that experience a lot.
Andrew: What inspires you most about working at TNC? It’s a bit of a different question. Your favorite thing is one thing, but what sort of energizes you? What inspires you?
Karla: I think it’s our commitment to learning and doing things in a new way. Our commitment to learning. It looks like, I don’t know, a little different in some respects. There’s a commitment to learning just about our field and the way that we can do our work and the way we might do some of the work we’re already doing differently, just to improve it. But then there’s also our commitment to learning about organizations and their unique context. I think our commitment to learning about our clients personally, I feel like that’s just something, like I said before, relationships are just so important. When we write proposals, we always put our work is relationship focused, and that’s not just us putting something in a proposal. We live that for sure.
And then our commitment to learning about one another. I feel like at our staff meetings, there’s always these really cool icebreakers that lead to so many insights about people, and I don’t know, some of them just stick with me. I remember things about people. Just learning, I think is just so central to our organization. And that more recently too, as a management team, really sitting down and thinking strategically about how we can be stronger as an organization to then be able to serve communities and our clients and all of that. We’re just more focused on that than we’ve ever been. And so, yeah, I don’t know. I feel inspired. I always leave my workday thinking about things that I’ve learned, which I think is really nice. I never ever want to stop learning. If I do, I am going to be concerned. So it’s just having that space where I’m able to do that at work where I do spend a lot of my time.
Andrew: If we were to go forward 10 years in time and you’re still working in this career, still leading TNC, what would you love to see? What do you dream of being different at TNC 10 years from now?
Karla: I feel like we do so many things really well. So I don’t know if I would necessarily have so many things to be different, but I think I would want to make sure that we are keeping up with, I dunno, the realities that our employees are facing. Never really losing the pulse of that, I guess. Feeling what it’s like being an employee in this sector, in this world currently. So I think I would want us to just really, really focus on that. I can’t think of anything that I’d want to be truly different. I think it would just be we are really continuing to support our team members, our clients, supporting that work-life balance too.
And I think we are doing things like that already. “No Meeting Friday”, just as an example. The policy that we have there. I think we are always willing to try new things. So I think it’s just our willingness to try new things. Things are going to be different as a result of that. We hear about things and you had said at one point, we need to be brave and try different things, and I think we are and can be. So I don’t know, maybe it’ll just organically change just based on what we’re learning and all of that.
Andrew: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right, and I think what you said earlier about a relationships driven approach is, I hear what you’re saying now. We don’t have to have ideas from the literature or something that are going to be different if we continue to cultivate great relationships with our staff and with our clients and truly listen to them, that’ll lead to innovation. That’s the relational approach, right?
Karla: Yeah, totally.
Andrew: What’s something outside of work that made you smile this week?
Karla: Okay, so definitely making dinner with my 4-year-old. Just like she gets up in her little tower at the counter and was just cutting up cucumbers, and she did an amazing job. I was like, who taught you how to use a knife? Because it wasn’t me! I think she must have learned at daycare. She just did such a good job. And we just chatted the whole time, which is just like I was thinking about, I don’t know, even a year or two ago, we couldn’t just stand there and have a conversation the way that we can now. And so it’s just so cool to hear about her perspectives on things, and she’s making jokes, and then she’s giving the ugliest piece of the cucumber to Harry, my partner, for some reason, but yeah, I just found myself just smiling, just watching her do this.
Andrew: Yeah, when they are suddenly people, not just babies, but people.
Karla: Yeah, totally. Harry recently took her to get some hockey gear. She’s going to be starting hockey, and to see a picture of her with all of it on, I was like, oh my gosh, you are just a full on person at this point. And it’s cool. I definitely get emotional, but it’s just so amazing to see.
Andrew: It really is, and it still happens to me. They continually surprise me, and I think, my goodness, I never imagined I’d be in this situation. Yeah, they’re just such interesting people, such great people. More great memories for her too, of cooking together with you. I mean, I’m sure that’ll stay with her.
So, finish this sentence, when I’m not working at TNC, I’m most likely….
Karla: Hanging out with my family and probably avoiding the little toy cars that my 2-year-old son has placed all around our house. Very strategically, I would say. There’s been a few moments where I’ve almost gone down, but just hanging out with them even sometimes, just watching them play, especially together, the moments where they play together. I just love that. I don’t know. For a while, our youngest couldn’t do that. He was just hanging out doing his own thing, but now watching them do imaginative play together is just amazing.
Andrew: Yeah, it really is. Yeah. I remember when I took classes in improv watching kids and thinking, kids are improv all day. Kids are doing improv constantly. They’re pretending to be other people, and it’s just natural.
Karla: It really is
Andrew: So if you’re doing something when I’m not working at TNC, if you’re taking time for yourself doing something for self-care, what would you be doing?
Karla: I would say most recently it’s being out in the garden. I’ve grown a lot of flowers this year. It’s my first time actually doing it, and I grew them from seeds. So we have Zinnias, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Dahlias, out there, and they’re in full bloom right now, and I’m kind of just in awe of how beautiful they are, and that I actually got them to grow. I didn’t have high hopes. One thing that I tend to do is I just research the heck out of things, and then it’s almost not fun for me anymore. But with gardening this time I was like, I’m just going to do it. I’m not going to read about how to grow these things. I’m just going to try to plant them. And so I did plant the seeds with the kids, but now it is just for me. I’ll go out and take care of them. And this morning I spent some time just out there looking at them because they’re just so beautiful, and it’s just cool to see something else that I’ve been able to grow.
Andrew: Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome. And it is a beautiful garden, for sure. Thank you.
I would say that Karla Stroud’s style of doing community research and evaluation is highly relational, highly based on building great working relationships with other team members and with clients. And I think even the writing you’ve done about the importance of doing things in person is part of that, that’s highly relational. So why is Karla Stroud a highly relational evaluator? What is it about you that makes you that kind of an evaluator?
Karla: I think it’s empathy. I feel things very deeply and just always think about other people. I’ve always done that in my life. And so I think bringing it into the work that we do in evaluation, it was just such a natural fit, and it’s something I could never imagine not doing.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, thanks. It’s really wonderful to hear how TNC became the professional home that was the right home for you, the place where you could grow and develop
Karla: Yeah. And the thing about TNC is that it has been there through so many huge milestones in my life. I’ve grown up so much in the organization, with the organization. It has a special place in my heart, for sure.
