Gabrielle Donnelly

I am a scholar-practitioner in the field of social innovation with a focus on bridging inquiry and practice for individual and social change. My passion for connecting academic inquiry and practitioner-driven social initiatives leads me to work with social purpose organizations as they navigate the frontiers of social change, including: ALIA Institute, Government of Nova Scotia, Ecology Action Center, Dalhousie University, Coady International Institute, New Leaf Social Innovation, BraveSpace, Ashland Institute, and Now Lunenburg County.

I am  experienced in the use of applied research and evaluation approaches tailored to social innovation and change initiatives such as Developmental Evaluation and Outcome Mapping, and am skilled in the use of a variety of facilitation techniques and collaborative leadership processes such as World Café, the Art of Hosting, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, and Deep Democracy.

I received my doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in 2016. I am a research fellow at the Center for Postnormal Policy Studies at East-West University of Chicago, as well as an advisory board member for the Intelligent Optimist’s (formerly Ode Magazine) certificate program intransformative studies. I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

My Resume