Over 25 years, Mary has been involved with hundreds of projects focused on social, environmental and economic development, working as a principal of Eko Nomos since 1995 and founder of Sustainable Livelihoods Canada (SLC) in 2019. Throughout Canada, in northern, remote, rural, and urban communities Mary has brought her skills to bear on project of many sizes and with many different organizations. Mary has developed a specific group of strategies for application to development, research, and evaluation projects according to specific local needs.

Founding SLC provides a legacy location for the processes, tools and contacts that Mary has developed over the course of her working life.

In her work with SLC, Mary continues to mentor a new generation of social entrepreneurs and community/environmental economic developers. Mary holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University, and a PhD from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph. She works in partnership with the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute of the University of Guelph.

Mary lives and works in Kimberley, Ontario.

Core knowledge and competencies

• Evaluation
• Research
• Training and education
• Organizational capacity building
• Community development/engagement
• Multi-site projects
• Coaching and convening

SLC Project Expertise

• Social enterprise
• Non-profit organizations
• Employment and training
• Entrepreneurship
• Disability
• Health and wellness
• Food sovereignty/security
• Gender-based violence
• Women and gender-diverse people
• Children, youth and families
• Immigration and newcomer services
• Northern, rural and remote organizations

She is a course instructor for Motivational Interviewing. She received her Motivational Interviewing Trainer certification through the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), an international organization committed to promoting high-quality MI practice and training.  Dr. Antony has developed several MI workshops and trainings across a variety of settings (e.g., hospitals, mental health community centres, poverty reduction programs, education/schools).

Dr. Antony has worked with SL Canada for over 7 years to embed MI-informed coaching into Sustainable Livelihoods practice, and to design an MI-informed SL coaching practice training program.  The training has been delivered to over 100 front-line staff and managers at more than 20 organizations across Canada.

Allison has been working with non-profits in Canada for over 20 years. She has been using the Sustainable Livelihoods framework since 2017 and joined SLC as an associate in 2023. Allison is committed to positive, strengths-based approaches and has seen the power of the SL framework to transform organizational practices and individual lives. She understands the challenges that resource-strapped organizations face and actively works to build supportive relationships with staff and understand the unique challenges faced by each organization.

Allison’s experience includes engagement, evaluation, and leadership roles at small to mid-sized non-profit organizations and experience with funding organizations including the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Ministry of Health, and United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County. She has an independent consulting firm, DARE Impact Consulting, and in addition to her work with SLC she works on evaluation, organizational change, and program development projects across Canada.

As a lifelong learner, she holds bachelor’s degrees in Developmental Psychology and Social Work from the University of Windsor and a master’s in Public Policy from Simon Fraser University. She is completing an Interdisciplinary PhD in Evaluation at Western Michigan University focusing on organizational change leadership. She is also a Credentialed Evaluator (CE) through the Canadian Evaluation Society. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor (1918), and the Professional Development Committee Co-Chair of the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society.

Allison has three young children and lives in Tecumseh, Ontario on the Traditional Territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations.

Core knowledge and competencies

• Evaluation
• Research
• Training and education
• Organizational capacity building
• Organizational change
• Program development/design
• Community development/engagement

SLC Project expertise

• Non-profit organizations
• Employment and training
• Entrepreneurship
• Disability
• Health and wellness
• Food sovereignty/security
• Gender-based violence
• Women and gender-diverse people
• Children, youth and families

Samantha is the founder and director of Research for Change, a consultancy that strengthens equity movements globally through collaborative action and systemic change. As a recognized leader in equality and prosperity, Samantha is impacting national and international practice and policy working with organizations across Canada, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean.

Samantha’s expertise lies in trauma-informed approaches and intersectional gender-based analysis. She has extensive experience in advocacy, research, facilitation, and capacity building, delivering training on anti-oppression, decolonization, anti-racism, and bystander intervention.

Samantha has a strong background in community engagement and experiential learning, designing and teaching courses at the University of Guelph. Samantha holds a Master’s in Gender and Development and a Program Evaluation Certificate. 

Samantha values the Sustainable Livelihoods Canada asset-focus and is motivated to use the strengths-based SL approach because of key concepts such as the Vulnerability Context that examine the external factors holding people back as well as the systems, trends and cycles that make systemically marginalized populations vulnerable to exclusion. With SLC, Samantha has applied the Sustainable Livelihoods framework to address gender-based and sexual violence through partnerships that focus on identifying and addressing structural barriers to socioeconomic inclusion and leadership with organizations like the Canadian Women’s Foundation and In Good Company, a partnership of Canadian Women’s Foundation, Catalyst Canada, Plan International Canada and YWCA Canada.

She resides in Guelph, Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Core knowledge and competencies

• Evaluation
• Research
• Training and education
• Program development/design
• Community development/engagement
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
• Collaborative projects
• Multi-site projects

SLC Project expertise

• Non-profit organizations
• Employment and training
• Gender-based violence
• Women and gender-diverse people
• Children, youth and families
• Immigration and newcomer services
• Northern, rural and remote organizations

With over 15 years of project management and evaluation experience, and stakeholder engagement supporting programs for vulnerable communities in Ontario, Aarthi manages the operations of SLC evaluations.

Aarthi brings her Bachelors in Education and her expertise in planning, developing and implementing multi-year capacity building projects to the team.

As a Project Manager with the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, Aarthi has planned, implemented and evaluated: mentorship programs to support female engineering graduates to further their careers in the engineering profession and training programs to support International Engineering Graduates to progress towards engineering licensure in Canada.

Aarthi has over five years of experience in on-line training and facilitation using a number of different platforms.

Core knowledge and competencies

• Training and education
• Program development/design
• Community development/engagement
• Multi-site projects
• Project administration
• Project management 

SLC Project expertise

• Non-profit organizations
• Employment and training
• Gender-based violence
• Immigration and newcomer services
• Northern, rural and remote organizations

An Adult Educator by trade with 20 years of experience, Marie has worked as a trainer, facilitator, vocational evaluator, and manager in Employment Services and Mental Health sectors. She brings with her a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and English, with a minor in Women’s Studies, as well as a post-graduate Certificate in Teaching & Training Adults. In addition, she is licensed in Personality Dimensions Level II; LEGO® Serious Play; Strong Interest Inventory; ESAT Assessor; and Soft Skills Solutions.

Marie first connected with SLC on a project with Job Skills, completing training and implementing the sustainable livelihoods framework. Passionate about making an impact on the community and empowering participants to move forward, Marie enjoys designing and delivering coaching and training for multi-barriered participants to those seeking professional development.

Marie currently lives and works in Durham Region.

Core knowledge and competencies

• Training and education
• Organizational change
• Program development/design
• Collaborative projects

SLC Project expertise

• Non-profit organizations
• Employment and training
• Disability
• Health and wellness
• Women and gender-diverse people
• Immigration and newcomer services

Her work on the front lines of poverty reduction efforts in Canada has encompassed promoting economic development, Harm Reduction, and financial capability programming with marginalized people. With a career dedicated to service in the public benefit sector, she possesses extensive expertise in evaluating complex partnership-based, multi-site programs; and a strong understanding of the context, perspective and constraints of a range of stakeholders.

Janet is particularly interested in exploring program impact, facilitating collaborative, community-based learning initiatives and developmental evaluations grounded in a theory of change, solid performance metrics, shared evidence-based outcomes indicators and a range of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.

Janet specializes in evaluation coaching, and in including diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives in the evaluation process. She also works with managers and funders of programs to build their organizational capacity to integrate outcomes thinking into programming, in order to strengthen practice, improve outcomes and influence policy development.

Over the past ten years, she has been working with community partners to promote and advance Sustainable Livelihoods – holistic, strengths-based client engagement practice.

Based in Toronto Canada, she is the owner/operator of Resources for Results, a boutique evaluation firm. She is a founding director of Sustainable Livelihoods Canada.