Our Team

Barb Rallison is a facilitator, educator and practitioner of social impact. In her role as Associate Director of the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, Barb oversees several of the student-oriented and community-oriented social innovation and systems leadership initiatives offered through the Institute including Catamount, Systems Leadership Sandbox and StartWork. Previously, Barb worked for Momentum, a changemaking organization and long standing CCEDNet member. Her work at Momentum focused on strengthening support for social entrepreneurship both locally and provincially. Barb is also a co-founder of Local Investing YYC, an impact investment cooperative that provides capital to Calgary-based businesses generating social and environmental returns. She has also served on the board of Green Calgary and participated on the Benefit-Driven advisory taskforce with the City of Calgary.

Christina sits on and participates in empowerment initiatives and community organizing, in partnership with other levels of government and even corporate partners. She has been working for three years for elected officials in the Quebec National Assembly and is learning how provincial policies facilitate the social and solidarity economy.

She is a graduating student with a specialized graduate degree in community economic development and wants to put her theoretical knowledge of participatory governance into practice and contribute to the alternative economy movement.

Originally from Nigeria, Derek Bassey moved to Canada to pursue a Bachelor of Business Administration through the Canadian Mennonite University. Since May 2021, he has been working as the Finance Coordinator for Fireweed Food Co-op. To Derek, community economic development means relying less on globalization and more on local partners and players. He believes the heart of a community is people’s spirits, and they thrive best when they feel they are safe and encouraged to be themselves. When it comes to good governance, Derek believes the key is open communication, willingness to collaborate, and communicating through conflict. In his spare time, he likes to paint and listen to music.

Matthew Rempel has been providing support to social enterprises in Manitoba for the past 8 years as a consultant in social enterprise development, marketing, leadership training, and media production. He focuses on improving connections between social enterprises and the practitioners within them, as well as spreading the ideas of social enterprise. He has previously provided paid and volunteer services to CCEDNet as a social enterprise development coach through the SPARK program, as a facilitator for workshops held both in person, and online, and as a presenter at The Manitoba Gathering.

Matthew’s experience in network development, strategic planning, organizational development support, and media production are elements he brings as a member of CCEDNet’s Board of Directors.

Originally from Toronto, Michael quickly became involved in educational politics, being elected president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. After sitting on the Premier’s steering committee for Major Capacity Expansion and the establishment of UOF, Michael completed his studies at the University of British Columbia in International Economics and Sustainable Development. He then returned to Toronto to work with Conseil scolaire Viamonde in Labour Relations and Community Development, as well as with l’Université de l’Ontario français as a consultant. His passion for economics and sustainable development is what brought him to the CCO, where he manages their Organizational Management & growth strategy. Outside of work, Michael cycles frequently with Morning Glory and is a member of the Board of Directors of COFRD.  

Michelle has over 30 years of experience working with local and First Nation governments and NGO’s in Canada to strengthen their strategic impact and capacity, working for many years with the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal.

Her experience across all roles in community work givers her a solid understanding of the diversity of perspectives and resources communities need to get stuff done. Michelle was the community research lead in the design of the Community Resilience Manual and worked with the Government of Botswana to train facilitators there.  She facilitated a diverse multi-sector Advisory group for Western Forest Products resulting in successful forest certification, was Canada’s first Transition Town Trainer and is co-founder of Building Resilient Neighbourhoods.

Currently Michelle works with SHIFT Collaborative to strengthen systems change practice and adaptive learning in action with a focus on multi-stakeholder initiatives and regional food systems. Her current work includes coaching three Collective Impact initiatives, supporting deepening inclusive practices within IPCC Working Group I, coaching NGOs to strengthen financial acumen through Thriving Non-Profits and delivery of CMHC Housing Solutions Labs.

Noelia Delgado is from Peru. She is trained in Business administration and has an MBA in Management counselling from the École des sciences de la gestion at the Université de Québec à Montréal. She has 16 years of experience in the field of community action and of the social economy and has extensive knowledge of the Quebec ecosystem. Currently employed by the Corporation de développement économique communautaire de Québec (CDÉC de Québec) she also worked for several years at the Chantier de l’économie sociale and the Coalition des organismes communautaires pour le développement de la main-d’œuvre (COCDMO). She also has international experience through her contributions to C.I.T.I.E.S (Centre international de transfert d’innovations et de connaissances en économie sociale et solidaire), GSEF (Global Social Economic Forum), FSMET (Forum mondial social des économies transformatrices) and RIPESS (Intercontinental network for the promotion of social solidarity economy).

Noelia believes that her involvement in the community development and social economy ecosystem in Quebec and internationally will be an added value to the Board of Directors. Her passion for getting involved and contributing to society’s development through the promotion of equity, diversity, and inclusion will allow her to collaborate with the various CCEDNet committees.

pk mutch is a serial award-winning social entrepreneur, publishing professional, entrepreneurship curriculum consultant, experienced board director/chair, and adjunct faculty at the Gordon S. Lang School of Management and Economics at the University of Guelph. mutch was recognized as one of Canada’s Inspiring 50 women in April 2018 and as a top community collaborator by the Immigrant Women in Business association in 2019.

In 2013, mutch became the founder/managing member of the HighWire Collective (formerly Eve-Volution Inc.) and founder/Publisher/Managing Editor for LiisBeth Media, a niche nonprofit, indie digital publishing venture that serves as a platform and voice for over 30 000 diverse women in entrepreneurial spaces who believe business can be a powerful ally in our collective quest to create a sustainable, fair and inclusive, people first world.

mutch has worked with Indigenous entrepreneurs, and supported the development of the first women’s incubator program in Imman, Jordan. mutch co-founded and currently serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence at The Fifth Wave (Canadian Film Centre/Media Lab), Canada’s first and at present only feminist-identified accelerator program for women entrepreneurs in digital media, film and gaming. mutch also serves as a consultant and course designer/ facilitator for Rise Asset Development, Elizabeth Fry Society and Up with Women.

Ryan Oneil Knight has surely demonstrated his inestimable influence as an ecosystem animator. Ryan is a co-founding partner and President of the Afro-Caribbean Business Network (ACBN), a network for the Black community that bridges the economic gap for Black entrepreneurs providing Black businesses with the resources they need to start, grow and scale up. As one of Canada’s leading organizations for mentoring and developing Black businesses, it also created the first Black-led micro loan program in Ontario in partnership with Alterna Savings and Credit Union.

Ryan’s commitment to black and youth entrepreneurship, compassion for others, ability to build consensus among partners, strong capacity for leadership and his dedication to community economic development initiatives and co-operative principles has led to multiplied impact within the community.

Ryan championed the planning of the Federal Black Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Conference, a strategy developed in partnership with the Government of Canada and the Ecosystem Strategy. The event focused on building capacity within the Black entrepreneurship ecosystem and was an important step towards rebuilding community since the onset of the pandemic.

Ryan’s energetic commitment to community economic development and personal mantra There is No Progress without Collaboration continues to create impact through CCEDNet’s CreateAction program, his contributions as CCEDNet’s Parliamentarian and Elections Officer, ACBN’s role in the Investment Readiness Program and his participation as part of the CCEDNet delegation to meet with Minister Hussen in March 2020 in Ottawa.

Ryan is married to Cherriton and together they have two wonderful children Jasmine and Christian.

Born and raised in rural Ontario and currently living and working in rural BC, Ryan has been working as a consultant in and around CED – and most recently leading the next iteration of the Simon Fraser University (SFU) CED Certificate Program. In the last year, he’s worked at SFU to provide better professional development opportunities by gaining accreditation through EDAC, CCUA and Cando (TAED and PAED). Canada needs more community economic development practitioners, and Ryan is dedicated to forming connections and collaborations that will “build local economies that strengthen communities and benefit everyone.”

Ryan is a strategic, creative, systematic and analytical leader with significant experience and a proven track record of project and program success related to rural and remote community development. He has been recognized for his work, receiving the “2020 – 2021 BCEDA Economic Development Marketing Innovation Award (Less than 20,000 Population)” and the 2020 BC Farmers Market Champion Award.

With a passion for understanding the systems around us and working collaboratively on community-centred solutions, Tori believes in people and the power of shifting perspectives and objectives to create monumental change. As Chief Operating Officer at Buy Social Canada, she spearheads consulting services and works across the social procurement ecosystem.

She sits on the Stronger Together Solidarity Working Group to help bring inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility to the social innovation sector. Currently, she is the Project Manager for Wood Buffalo Social Procurement Implementation, Winnipeg Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, Edmonton Sustainable Procurement Tools and Procedures and Education and Training Lead for the British Columbia Social Procurement Initiative.