Don Lenihan

Vice-president, Engagement

internationally recognized expert on democracy and public engagement, accountability and service delivery. He is currently leading the Public Engagement Project (PEP), a two-year research and capacity-building project involving some 500 public servants from nine federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments, and the Government of Australia, in an 18-month project on building capacity for public engagement.

Collaboration and community engagement have been central themes in Don's work over the years. He recently co-authored "Co-Design: A New Service Vision for the Government of Australia," with Lynelle Briggs, CEO of Medicare Australia, which appeared in the January 2011 issue of Public Administration Today, Australia's leading public administration journal. The paper develops a "community approach" to service-delivery, based on Don's approach to public engagement. The Government of Australia will test the model later this year in a pilot project involving all three orders of government. Don will act as a senior advisor and writer on the project.

Don's latest book, Me and My Government, is an introduction to the field of public engagement, as well as a blueprint for change, and a sustained argument for the need to rethink the public policy process. It will be released in the fall of 2011.

From April 2007-April 2008, at the request of Premier Shawn Graham, Don served as Advisor to the Government of New Brunswick on Public Engagement. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of the Crossing Boundaries National Council, a non-partisan group of senior public servants and elected officials from all 10 provincial governments and the Government of Canada. Under Don's direction, the Council published over 40 studies and articles on key governance issues, such as accountability, privacy and service delivery, many of which were written by Don.

Before assuming his role in Crossing Boundaries, Don founded the Centre for Collaborative Government, a not-for-profit think tank to promote research and experimentation on collaborative, community-based approaches to policy development and the delivery of public services. He served for four years as the Director of Research at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and, prior to that, worked for The Network on the Constitution as Director of Research and Editor of The Network/Le Réseau, a national publication on national unity and constitutional issues.

Don has over 25 years of experience in the field as a project leader, writer, speaker, senior government advisor, trainer and facilitator. Throughout his career, he has developed and led many research and consultation projects involving senior public servants, academics, elected officials, journalists and members of the private and third sectors from across the country. He is the author of numerous articles, studies and books and a former columnist with the Hill Times newspaper in Ottawa and the magazine CIO Government Review.