Who we are
Our hope for you is that this learning journey of public engagement is one that feeds your mind and enlightens your soul.
Amelia Shaw
- Founder & Trainer -
Amelia is a consultation strategist, practitioner, professional facilitator and capacity builder. Over the past twenty-plus years, Amelia has been successfully involved in the development of major policies, projects and plans from design to implementation, ensuring the processes are inclusive. She has worked with governments, public organizations, nonprofits and private companies in multiple sectors including community development, education, governance, labour, land-use planning, transit and transportation. Her ultimate goal with any public participation and engagement project/process, is to find an innovative approach that supports both community and organizational values and objectives and leads to helpful deliverables and a positive outcome. Her award-winning solutions have earned international recognition.
Amelia was previously the Executive Manager of IAP2 Canada (2015-2021) and USA (2014-2019) and IAP2 Canada’s first President. In those roles she did her best to successfully champion “good” public participation and engagement. She became an IAP2 licensed trainer in 2014.
Gay Robinson, APR, CP3
- Trainer -
Through engagement, communication, and facilitation, Gay helps organizations include the voices of stakeholders in decisions that impact their lives. Her passion lies in working collaboratively with communities and organizations at the grassroots level; preferring to keep discussions at the kitchen table rather than the boardroom table.
Based in Alberta, Gay’s boutique consulting firm, Gay Robinson Consulting, serves clients ranging from energy companies, utilities and regulators to community groups, school boards and local governments. She encourages her clients to raise the bar and establish best practices for stakeholder engagement.
Gay is an active member of IAP2 – as a licensed trainer for IAP2 since 2005 and in various leadership roles. She is an IAP2 Canada Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) and has served as an assessor for this professional certification program since its inception.
Tracey Ehl, MCP3
- Trainer -
Living in what has been called the post truth era brings a unique set of challenges to people involved in public processes. There is cynicism, mistrust and exhaustion abounding. And, there is also the opportunity to flip the narrative. This is where great public participation processes come in. Since process is just as important as the outcome, good public participation processes can bring people closer to each other and result in great decisions for stronger, more inclusive and resilient communities.
Tracey designs public participation processes so that people can explore ideas, opportunities and issues, enabling groups to learn together and take action. Tracey’s project involvement has focused on complex and/or controversial projects in the areas of accessibility, age friendliness, waste management, energy, sustainability, public water and wastewater system management, municipal planning, transportation infrastructure and public transit, locally and internationally. No two projects or communities are alike. The IAP2 practice framework and all of the supporting models and concepts provide a valuable roadmap to designing meaningful and inclusive engagement approaches that are tailored for each context and support a sustainable outcome.
Tracey became an IAP2 licensed trainer in 2020. She is a certified Master Public Participation Professional (MCP3), a registered professional planner (RPP), and certified professional facilitator (CPF) with over two decades of professional experience in public participation, facilitation, communications and strategic planning. In 2023, she completed a PhD, with focus on transformative learning, storytelling and sustainability.
Tannis Topolnisky
- Trainer -
Tannis Topolnisky is a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) with over 20 years experience in engagement and facilitation. She has managed over 300 projects locally, nationally and internationally that have required bringing together diverse audiences. Impacts on health, livelihood, relationships, well-being and community are common in most of her engagement projects. Her expertise is in the strategic planning and facilitation of engagement processes, to carefully and considerately link it to impact, change and decision making. She also has specialized experience working internally with organizations to not only assess and understand the current state of engagement but also to put into place the necessary structures, skills, attitudes and behaviors to build the practice of P2 internally.
Lara Tierney
- Trainer -
Lara is currently working in community and business relations for infrastructure services for The City of Calgary. She has been actively doing public engagement work since 2005. Her experience includes working with projects in the middle of issues management and moving them into productive public engagement processes. She also develops engagement strategies for complex multi interest holder projects and programs. Lara has experience facilitating a wide variety of engagement activities both in-person and virtually. These vary from small meetings designed to to large public events with hundreds of participants. She is adept at reporting for different audiences and ensuring that the story of what was heard and learned is communicated effectively. Lara is a Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) and a licensed IAP2 trainer.