Louise Merlihan
Director, Learning Centre
Contact Details:
e. louise@tamarackcommunity.ca
p. 226-979-8167
Remote Office: Kitchener, Ontario
About Louise
Louise lead's the Tamarack Learning Centre's work with community leaders to co-generate knowledge and become a collective force for social change. Louise recently lead Tamarack's Engagement efforts with nearly 20,000 learners using a variety of leading technologies. Louise also leads a team of six community animators whose role is to deepen engagement and create a co-generative learning environment. Louise has a passion for leadership coaching that leads to engagement and collaboration.
An experienced facilitator, Louise has been designing and supporting local and national communities of learning since 1997. Most recently she served as Senior Consultant, Learning & Development at the University of Guelph where she designed and facilitated key learning programs for staff and faculty, and provided strategic consulting to departments across campus, including coaching for staff and leaders, performance management support, team building and development, strategic planning, and facilitation. She also coordinated the University's celebrated Leave for Change program.
From 2001 to 2008, Louise worked with Tamarack as the Director of its award-winning Learning Centre. During her tenure she launched and edited Engage! magazine, edited a number of the Institute's publications and aides for action, and managed the team that produced Tamarack's first Communities Collaborating Institute. From 1997 to 2000, Louise worked with Opportunities 2000, a millennial poverty-reduction campaign in Waterloo Region.
Louise is a certified facilitator for a number of assessments and inventories and is working towards a professional coaching designation.
She has been an active volunteer with the Kitchener Public Library for over a decade. She lives in a walkable, vibrant neighbourhood in Kitchener and always has some project on the go.
Area of Expertise
- Community Engagement
- Collaborative Leadership
Recent Work
- Engaging Your Community one-day workshop at the Alberta Museums Association annual conference
- Facilitate a multi-stage community engagement process with two Ontario museums and provide consultation and support to the Ontario Museum Association to enable the successful rollout of the process with additional museums.
- Community Engagement: The Next Generation - A three-day workshop for those looking to understand the latest thinking and practice of Community Engagement.
Seminars and Workshops
- Leadership from the Inside Out
- Learning from Today's Social Movements
- SOAR: A Strengths-Based Approach to Planning
- Social Media: The Not-so-secret Sauce of Engaging Online
- Targeted Engagement: Workshops and Focus Groups
- Web-based Engagement: More than a Website
