Leadership and direction for BALTA is provided by a steering committee of eight members. The Committee serves as the steering and main strategic decision making body for the BALTA Research Alliance. This includes approval of annual research plans and budgets. It also serves a key role in ensuring coherence of the research effort, synthesis of research results and development/management of strategic initiatives to enhance the impact of BALTA.
The steering committee is structured to represent the principal constituencies involved in BALTA - two community organization representatives, four academic institution representatives and a student representative. BALTA's coordinator is also a member (ex officio).
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Mike Lewis
BALTA Director and Lead Investigator
Canadian Centre for Community Renewal
Mike has played a leading role in community economic development and the social economy for over 30 years. He has worn many hats including advocate, advisor, analyst and trainer in a vast range of community economic development projects across Canada and internationally. These projects have included strategic planning, organizational development, venture development, entrepreneurial and small business development, feasibility analysis, research and evaluation, and the structuring of joint ventures. Mike is Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal. He has played a key role in building several CED organizations and social enterprises, including the Canadian CED Network, and has provided technical assistance to many more. |
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Dr. Mary Beckie
Co-Investigator, SERC 2, and Assistant Professor
University of Alberta Faculty of Extension
For the past several years, Mary has worked as an academic, consultant and activist in the areas of community/regional development and alternative agri-food systems. The primary focus of this work has been to examine and strengthen the linkages between ecology, culture, resource management and community development. Mary has been involved with innovative initiatives for sustainable development in rural and urban communities in western Canada, north central U.S., and the U.K. In 2006, Mary was appointed Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta and joined BALTA soon thereafter.
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Dr. Martin Garber-Contrad
Co-Investigator, SERC 1, and CEO
Edmonton Community Foundation
As CEO of the Edmonton Community Foundation since 2005, Martin plays an important role in enhancing support for the social economy in Edmonton. This has included the development and launching of the Edmonton Social Enterprise Fund, co-sponsored by ECF and the City of Edmonton. Prior to joining ECF, Martin directed a large community-based non-profit which operates a variety of programs for women, children and youth-at-risk, working primarily in the areas of housing, feeding, employment and outreach. Martin's first social enterprise was Kids in the Hall Bistro - an employment training program in a full-service restaurant at Edmonton's City Hall. A Muttart Fellowship supported sabbatical in 1997 eventually resulted in a book, Sermons for the New Millennium. As part of Edmonton's 100th birthday celebration in 2004, Martin was recognized as one of a hundred influential Edmontonians - ten from each decade of the city's life. |
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Dr. Mike Gismondi
Co-Investigator, Mapping Program & SERC 2, and Professor
Athabasca University
Mike is Professor of Sociology at Athabasca University. He was until recently Director of AU’s Master of Arts in Integrated Studies program. Mike is an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta and a Research Fellow with the Centre for Research in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at York University. He is editor of Aurora: Interviews with Leading Thinkers and Writers, and an editorial board member of the Electronic Journal of Sociology. Mike lives in the Northern Alberta Town of Athabasca and was for many years a town councilor. He is interested in the relationship between municipal government and the social economy. Mike's research focuses on local responses to globalization, northern development and public participation in environmental issues. Mike has been leading the mapping and portraiture program within BALTA and researching issues related to sustainable development. |
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George Penfold
Co-Investigator, SERC 1, and Rural Innovation Chair
Selkirk College (Castlegar, BC)
In addition to his position at Selkirk College, George is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Business and Economics at Thompson Rivers University. His professional background includes rural economic development, socio-economic impact assessment, community and organizational development, community planning and policy and research. George has worked for provincial and local governments in Ontario and was a faculty member at the University of Guelph School of Rural Planning and Development from 1981 to 1995. From 1995 to 2006 he was a community planning and development consultant on Vancouver Island, BC. In that capacity he worked with private landowners, community organizations, local, regional and provincial governments and First Nations communities. In addition to his professional activities, George has owned and managed a small farm in Ontario and a marine eco-tourism business in BC. |
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Dr. Mark Roseland
Co-Investigator, SERC 2, and Professor
Simon Fraser University
Mark is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, formerly the Community Economic Development Centre, at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and is a professor in SFU’s Department of Geography. A former Editor of RAIN magazine, he was the North American Editor of the international journal Local Environment, published in association with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, from its inception in 1995 until 2002. His numerous publications include Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments (2005) and Eco-City Dimensions: Healthy Communities, Healthy Planet(1997), both from New Society Publishers. He lectures internationally, advises communities and governments on sustainable development policy and planning, and participates actively in sustainable community development projects in Vancouver and elsewhere. |
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Lena Soots
Student Representative
Doctoral Candidate, Simon Fraser University
Lena is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and an Instructor/Researcher with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University. She has worked with BALTA as a student researcher on various research projects since 2006 and is also working with a BALTA project to develop a new foundation course on the social economy. Lena's doctoral research brings together ideas in the areas of sustainability, the social economy, social enterprise, organizational learning and social innovation. Since June 2009, Lena has been serving as BALTA’s Student Program Coordinator, providing a range of orientation and other support to BALTA’s student researchers.
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Stuart Wulff
BALTA Coordinator (ex officio)
Stuart has worked for almost 30 years as coordinator and CEO for a wide range of education, policy and advocacy oriented coalitions, mostly in the fields of international development and human rights. His work has also focused on environmental issues (e.g. climate change), conflict resolution, and community based economic and social development. Stuart's work has taken him to many countries, including periods living in Africa, Europe and the South Pacific. An important aspect of Stuart's work has been the building of links between organizations and communities in other countries and their counterparts in Canada, including with First Nations and Indigenous Peoples' organizations. Stuart served for nine years as editor of Tok Blong Pasifik, an international magazine on Pacific issues with subscribers in over 40 countries, and was associate producer for P.O. Box Africa, a television series on community development set in Southern and Eastern Africa. |
