Associates
We are strategic planners, community development consultants, gender specialists, curriculum designers, educational experts and more. With every project, we assemble a team of professionals that best fits your situation to help you meet your goals and objectives.
Don Sawyer, Principal
Don Sawyer is a professional educator, writer and trainer. He lives with his wife, Jan, in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he manages NESA and directs local and international development projects. Before moving to Ontario, he lived and worked for more than 30 years in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, where he taught adult education, served as the Chair of the Okanagan University College (OUC) Adult Basic Education Department, and acted as the Curriculum Director for the Native Adult Education Resource Centre.
Don also served as the Director of OUC’s International Development Centre where he managed community development projects in West Africa, including the West African Rural Development Centre, which was recognized as a finalist for the Canadian Development Project of the Year in 2005. He has taught in schools, First Nations communities, and in post-secondary institutions in Canada and the U.S. For more than 30 years he has served as an educational consultant and curriculum developer, providing in-service workshops throughout North America. He is an authority on aboriginal adult education, and is the recipient of Rotary International’s Paul Harris Award for Exceptional Service. Don has published 20 curriculum collections and 10 books, including the best-selling YA novel Where the Rivers Meet and Tomorrow Is School and I am Sick to the Heart Thinking About It, a non-fiction account of his first teaching experiences in rural Newfoundland. His essays have appeared in most of Canada’s major daily newspapers. You can learn more about Don’s publications here/books--articles.html. His full CV is available here.
mail to: [email protected]
Iain MacDonald
Iain is a training and education professional with extensive experience in corporate, formal education and international development contexts. His specialties include the use of technology in education and training, particularly adult and workplace learning; ICTs in international development; mobile learning; international development project management; training program design and marketing. Iain has served as the manager of the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP), a Canadian industry training and technical consulting centre for the wood products manufacturing industry sector. In that roleIain managed a six-year project to develop university and National Diploma curriculum for universities in South Africa. His team has worked on numerous capacity building and training projects with private companies and First Nations communities in Canada. As Chair of the Canadian Wood Manufacturing Council, Iain spearheaded a wide range of industry training initiatives and personally managed the development of an nationwide online management skills training program. He has worked on curriculum development projects in Japan and for institutional clients in China and Korea, and has carried out climate change adaptation training/curriculum writing projects in Jamaica at the school and higher education levels. Iain is also the international lead on the Forestry Initiative for Landscape and Livelihood Improvement (FILLI) in Lesotho, a project that commenced in 2013 and continues today.
mail to: [email protected]
Nadia Ferguson
Nadia is a Natural Resource Management professional with more than 13 years of experience in project management and technical program support. Areas of specialization include climate change community based adaptation and disaster risk reduction, community facilitation, marine policy, environmental compliance and monitoring, organizational capacity assessment, and youth programming. She has experience in multicultural settings and the management of medium and large donor funded projects and programs. While with the UN Environmental Program, Nadia focused on Integrated Watershed and Coastal Area Management, Sustainable Pesticides Management, Climate Change Adaptation and Ecosystem Management and provided coordination of actions in support of the Cartagena Convention for the protection of the Wider Caribbean. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Until 2015, she served as the ACDI-VOCA Jamaica Climate Change & Disaster Risk Reduction Officer.
mail to: [email protected]
Kelly Flynn
Kelly is currently with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Myanmar, where she coordinates relief projects in combat areas. She held a similar role in Sri Lanka, acted as the Southern Africa coordinator for Canada World Youth, and is has advised UN on refugee camp management. She has extensive experience as an intern coordinator, intern orientation/reentry facilitator, curriculum designer and writer, workshop facilitator, popular educator, gender and peace building specialist, community development trainer, youth leadership program coordinator, teacher, and project manager.
For two years she managed the OUC/CIDA intern program that placed young Canadian graduates with West African NGOs. She has worked in Ghana, Gambia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Honduras, Guatemala, Zambia, Kenya, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Kelly received her MA in Peace and Conflict Management from Royal Roads University, and is now providing management assistance in that program. See Kelly discuss her RedR course on immigrant camp management here.
mail to: [email protected]
Kelly is currently with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Myanmar, where she coordinates relief projects in combat areas. She held a similar role in Sri Lanka, acted as the Southern Africa coordinator for Canada World Youth, and is has advised UN on refugee camp management. She has extensive experience as an intern coordinator, intern orientation/reentry facilitator, curriculum designer and writer, workshop facilitator, popular educator, gender and peace building specialist, community development trainer, youth leadership program coordinator, teacher, and project manager.
For two years she managed the OUC/CIDA intern program that placed young Canadian graduates with West African NGOs. She has worked in Ghana, Gambia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Honduras, Guatemala, Zambia, Kenya, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Kelly received her MA in Peace and Conflict Management from Royal Roads University, and is now providing management assistance in that program. See Kelly discuss her RedR course on immigrant camp management here.
mail to: [email protected]
Alpha Jallow
Alpha is the Board Chair of the West African Rural Development Centre in The Gambia, West Africa, and has 20 years of practical field experience in all areas of rural community development. For six years, Alpha acted as the coordinator of Action Aid’s local language literacy program in The Gambia. Alpha served as an original facilitator of the Gambia Rural Adult Instructor Training (GRAIT) program has received management and facilitation training in West Africa, Switzerland and Canada. He has also provided cultural and language orientations to hundreds of Western volunteers and aid workers working in West Africa and Alpha has an extraordinary combination of grassroots understanding of development, passionate commitment to rural communities, and excellent skills and knowledge in a wide array of related areas, including curriculum design, literacy training, cross-cultural communication, training of trainers, public speaking, facilitation, West African cultures and African historical and social issues.
mail to: [email protected]
Alpha is the Board Chair of the West African Rural Development Centre in The Gambia, West Africa, and has 20 years of practical field experience in all areas of rural community development. For six years, Alpha acted as the coordinator of Action Aid’s local language literacy program in The Gambia. Alpha served as an original facilitator of the Gambia Rural Adult Instructor Training (GRAIT) program has received management and facilitation training in West Africa, Switzerland and Canada. He has also provided cultural and language orientations to hundreds of Western volunteers and aid workers working in West Africa and Alpha has an extraordinary combination of grassroots understanding of development, passionate commitment to rural communities, and excellent skills and knowledge in a wide array of related areas, including curriculum design, literacy training, cross-cultural communication, training of trainers, public speaking, facilitation, West African cultures and African historical and social issues.
mail to: [email protected]
Art Napoleon
Art is currently a faculty member with Camosun College in British Columbia, serving as First Nations Development Officer. He has served as Chief and band administrator of the Saulteau First Nation, worked as a Native community development consultant, and acted as the Director of the Native Adult Education Centre (OUC). Fluent in Cree and a talented musician, storyteller and writer, Art has appeared at festivals and conferences across North America. He has published development handbooks, novels and curriculum materials, has hosted CBC programs, and has produced an award winning TV show. He currently stars in Moosemeat and Marmalade as the aboriginal bush chef. Art is also the former director of the Native Communications Society of British Columbia and the British Columbia Arts Council. You can learn more about Art’s work here.
mail to: [email protected]
Art is currently a faculty member with Camosun College in British Columbia, serving as First Nations Development Officer. He has served as Chief and band administrator of the Saulteau First Nation, worked as a Native community development consultant, and acted as the Director of the Native Adult Education Centre (OUC). Fluent in Cree and a talented musician, storyteller and writer, Art has appeared at festivals and conferences across North America. He has published development handbooks, novels and curriculum materials, has hosted CBC programs, and has produced an award winning TV show. He currently stars in Moosemeat and Marmalade as the aboriginal bush chef. Art is also the former director of the Native Communications Society of British Columbia and the British Columbia Arts Council. You can learn more about Art’s work here.
mail to: [email protected]
Carmen Rodriguez
Carmen is a Chilean-Canadian bilingual writer, educator and journalist who immigrated to Canada following the 1973 military coup in her native country. For more than 40 years she has worked as a facilitator, instructor, programmer, curriculum developer, lecturer, teacher and professor across a range of disciplines.
Between 1991 and 1996, Carmen coordinated and participated in an international project between Douglas College in Canada and the Nicaraguan Institute for Popular Education and Research (INIEP). Carmen has also co-authored and authored numerous educational publications, most notably Educating for Change: Community-Based/Student-Centred Literacy Programming with First Nations Adults, created to support instructors of aboriginal literacy and continues to be used widely across Canada. Her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, and has been the object of reviews and critical studies. As a journalist, Carmen collaborated with community radios in the roles of programmer, reporter and announcer, and for twenty-two years served as Vancouver correspondent for the Spanish Section of Radio Canada International.
mail to: [email protected]
Carmen is a Chilean-Canadian bilingual writer, educator and journalist who immigrated to Canada following the 1973 military coup in her native country. For more than 40 years she has worked as a facilitator, instructor, programmer, curriculum developer, lecturer, teacher and professor across a range of disciplines.
Between 1991 and 1996, Carmen coordinated and participated in an international project between Douglas College in Canada and the Nicaraguan Institute for Popular Education and Research (INIEP). Carmen has also co-authored and authored numerous educational publications, most notably Educating for Change: Community-Based/Student-Centred Literacy Programming with First Nations Adults, created to support instructors of aboriginal literacy and continues to be used widely across Canada. Her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, and has been the object of reviews and critical studies. As a journalist, Carmen collaborated with community radios in the roles of programmer, reporter and announcer, and for twenty-two years served as Vancouver correspondent for the Spanish Section of Radio Canada International.
mail to: [email protected]
Fred Keenan
Dr. Keenan has carried out international projects over the last 40 years in South and Central America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He is currently Co-Chair of the Project Advisory Council of a long-term program striving to reduce the mortality rates of mothers and newborn children in Rwanda and Burundi. He was the Director of Forest Industries at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. He has three degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto, and was Professor of Engineering and International Development at the University of Western Ontario. Previously he was Director of International Research at The University of Western Ontario, and was the founder and CEO of an international consulting company International Project and Protocol Services Inc. Recent projects were in Rwanda, The Gambia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uganda, and Vietnam.
He has authored or co-authored seven books and over 100 technical papers and reports in wood construction and in international development. Of relevance are International Development: A Casebook for Effective Management (co-authored with Christine Gilmore) and El Idioma y la Cultura Hispana: A Guide to the Spanish Language and the Hispanic World (with Carrie McLaren).
Mail to: i[email protected]
Dr. Keenan has carried out international projects over the last 40 years in South and Central America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He is currently Co-Chair of the Project Advisory Council of a long-term program striving to reduce the mortality rates of mothers and newborn children in Rwanda and Burundi. He was the Director of Forest Industries at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. He has three degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto, and was Professor of Engineering and International Development at the University of Western Ontario. Previously he was Director of International Research at The University of Western Ontario, and was the founder and CEO of an international consulting company International Project and Protocol Services Inc. Recent projects were in Rwanda, The Gambia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uganda, and Vietnam.
He has authored or co-authored seven books and over 100 technical papers and reports in wood construction and in international development. Of relevance are International Development: A Casebook for Effective Management (co-authored with Christine Gilmore) and El Idioma y la Cultura Hispana: A Guide to the Spanish Language and the Hispanic World (with Carrie McLaren).
Mail to: i[email protected]