Measuring What Matters 2021
On November 25, 2021, the CityXLab hosted a forum exploring the challenge and opportunities of developing shared community performance metrics. This forum considered questions such as:
What are best practices today in measuring community prosperity?
How can Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living in or near Calgary come to a shared understanding of what matters?
How can the commercial, social, and public sector work together to align on performance metrics?
Panel 1: A Global Perspective of Measuring Community Prosperity
Moderated by: Kate Koplovitch
Kate Koplovich
Senior Manager, Strategy, Calgary Economic Development
Kate is the Strategy Lead at Calgary Economic Development. In this capacity, she works on our city’s economic strategy, Calgary in the New Economy, and Calgary Economic Development’s internal organizational strategy. Working on the city’s economic strategy means collaborating and partnering with community organizations, civic partners, and businesses across Calgary to build a city where people come to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. The economic strategy looks holistically at four focus areas critical to driving shared economic prosperity: talent, innovation, place, and business environment. Before joining Calgary Economic Development Kate helped companies across Canada understand what risks and opportunities sustainability and climate change created for their business and operations. Kate holds a Masters of Science from University College London in Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment and a Bachelor’s in Environment and Business from the University of Waterloo.
Liz Zeidler
Founding Director at Centre for Thriving Places (England)
Liz Zeidler is Chief Executive, Centre for Thriving Places. She is an internationally recognised leader in sustainable wellbeing with nearly 30 years of experience in connecting, challenging, and supporting change-makers across four continents. She has been a key part of the development of all Centre for Thriving Place’s wellbeing economy measurement tools and approaches. She is a globally in-demand speaker and advisor on place-based approaches to measuring, understanding, and improving wellbeing in all sectors and putting people and planet at the heart of local decision making.
Beat Huser
Principal Strategic Advisor, Waikato Regional Council (New Zealand)
Beat Huser is a Principal Strategic Advisor with the Waikato Regional Council in New Zealand. Beat holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. For the last 30 years, Beat has been involved in central and local government in New Zealand as an information broker and strategic advisor linking science to policy and decision-making. Beat’s current focus is on horizon scanning to analyse emerging trends and their implications for Council, the development of wellbeing frameworks and indicators, and the use of integrated spatial models that link economic, demographic, and environmental data to explore future rural and urban land use scenarios. Beat is a member of several national advisory groups and is engaged in international think tanks and initiatives.
Kyle Wiebe
Kyle is an urban planner (Master of Urban Planning, McGill University) who seeks to operationalize complex urban issues and datasets into communicable opportunities. His experience includes assessing the administration of geo-spatial addresses to informal settlements in Nairobi with the UN-Habitat, working with street food vendors to increase low-income consumers’ nutritional security in India, and contributing to and leading numerous research projects on food security and homelessness in Winnipeg with the Institute of Urban Studies. Currently, in his role with the IISD, Kyle has helped develop a community indicator platform that allows cities globally to measure and visualize data related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Derek Cook
Director, Canadian Poverty Institute
Derek Cook joined the Canadian Poverty Institute in 2015, bringing over thirty years of leadership experience in the government, academic and non-profit sectors. Derek holds an M.Sc. in Rural Planning and Development and a Certificate in Knowledge Mobilization from the University of Guelph, a B.A. in Political Studies from McGill University, and is a Registered Social Worker in the Province of Alberta. Derek’s work includes extensive experience in social research and policy development at The City of Calgary and in community development with various organizations across Canada. Previously he served as the Executive Director of the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative, leading the Mayor’s task force on poverty reduction. Currently, Derek serves on the board of Canada Without Poverty and as a member of the Commission on Justice and Peace of the Canadian Council of Churches.
Panel 2: Measuring Community Prosperity in Calgary: Progress to Date, Challenges and Opportunities
Moderated by: Jeny Mathews-Thusoo
Jeny Mathews-Thusoo
Program Lead, Resilience, City of Calgary
Jeny Mathews-Thusoo has worked in strategy and social change for over 20 years with a vision that the future of cities belongs to the those who believe in the power of dreams. Currently at The City of Calgary, she is the Program Lead of Inclusive Futures within Resilience. Her focus is on how governments and institutions can better trust equity-deserving communities so that collectively, we can respond to the epic challenges of the 21st century. Jeny also is an instructor with the University of Calgary, Faculty of Social Work teaching social policy in hopes to inspire future socially responsible policy makers.
Arlene Strom
Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, Suncor Energy
Arlene Strom, chief legal officer, general counsel and corporate secretary, is responsible for all legal matters across the corporation. Arlene is also the Chair of the Suncor Energy Foundation as well as Chair of Suncor’s Inclusion & Diversity Council. Since joining Suncor in the corporate legal group in September 2003, Arlene has held a number of leadership positions within the company. Arlene most recently served as the vice president of Sustainability & Communications. In that role, Arlene was responsible for stakeholder and aboriginal relations, community investment, communications, and sustainability, including the management of the Suncor Energy Foundation. Prior to joining Suncor, she practiced corporate and securities law in Calgary. Arlene is the Chair of the Suncor Energy Foundation as well as Chair of Suncor’s Inclusion and Diversity Council. She is also the Chair of the Alberta Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Awards Foundation and a member of the University of Calgary Management Advisory Council for the Haskayne School of Business. Arlene has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Trinity Western University, and a Master of Arts degree in public policy and an LLB from the University of British Columbia. She is also a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Jacie Alook
Community Engagement & Partnership Coordinator, Native Counselling Services of Alberta
Jacie is a nehiyaw iskwew (Cree woman) from Treaty 8 territory, and member of the Bigstone Cree Nation. Her family originates from Wabasca, Alberta. Currently, Jacie works to support collaboration at the local, municipal, and national level, as the Community Engagement & Partnership Coordinator, of the Calgary Indigenous Sharing Network, with the non-profit, non-political Indigenous service organization, Native Counselling Services of Alberta. Her involvement with community is rooted in her passion to create and deepen relationships for unity, wellness, and sense of belonging. Her greatest teachers are her two daughters, instilling curiosity for life.
Sandy Berzins
Research Social Planner, City of Calgary
Sandy Berzins is the Director of Research and Outcomes at Calgary Counselling Centre and has joint appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry as well as Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. Sandy has over 20 years of health care research and program evaluation experience, in areas ranging from primary care, mental health, chronic disease management to health promotion. She completed her PhD in epidemiology in 2014, with her dissertation research focused on risk factors for depression in multiple sclerosis. Her current work in counselling outcomes research and evaluation includes an emphasis on effective knowledge translation as a longstanding interest.
Noel Keough
Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary
Noel is a co-founder (1996) and Indicator Project Lead at Sustainable Calgary Society, and a founding member of the National Working Group for the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. He served as a faculty member at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape for 15 years.
He has 30 years experience working in community development both locally and internationally. Noel has worked in Central and South America, Central and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Southern Africa. He has also worked with a variety of community organizations in Alberta, Newfoundland and British Columbia. Noel has published on topics ranging from participatory development, net zero cities, sustainable urban food systems, sustainability indicators, heritage building conservation, greywater harvesting project design, and the water energy food nexus.
Noel has been author or co-author on each of Sustainable Calgary’s 5 State of Our City reports – the most recent in 2020. His first book Sustainability Matters: Prospects for a Just Transition in Calgary, Canada’s Petro City was published in September 2021.