| Home > Events > Disease, Disaster, and Democracy, 2006 > Conference Speakers > Mary Pat MacKinnon Mary Pat MacKinnon Summary | Panel agenda Professional Biography
As Canadian Policy Research Network’s first director of the newly created PI Network (2002), Ms. McKinnon developed and implemented a research agenda focused on building and sharing knowledge with respect to the theory and practice of public involvement. Since 2002, she has directed six national or regional citizen dialogue projects that span social, environmental, and democratic policy fields. Under her guidance, the Network has also undertaken or commissioned a number of research papers examining various aspects of citizen engagement (e.g., fostering the institutionalization of public involvement, assessing the impacts of public involvement). A frequent commentator on the need for citizen engagement in policy, Ms. MacKinnon has given workshops and papers and participated in panels and seminars throughout Canada and in the United States, Australia, and South America. She has also provided citizen engagement advice and support to a wide variety of government and not-for-profit organizations, including a Brazilian youth and democracy dialogue project. Before joining CPRN, Ms. MacKinnon was the Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy at the Canadian Co-operative Association, where she managed a large portfolio of policy research initiatives engaging members of Canada’s cooperatives. During her time as a policy consultant with the Ottawa Social Planning Council, she led public education and participatory research initiatives related to income security and labour market policy. As a policy analyst with the Nova Scotia Department of Development, she drafted the province’s new manpower development strategy. She was also a Research Associate to the Pepin-Robarts Task Force on National Unity (for the Atlantic Canada study). A native of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, she has a Masters of Public Administration and BA Honours First Class (History and Political Studies) from Queens University. |
