Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer
Canada
- Program Year
- 2015-17
- Country of Current Residence
- Canada
- City/Town of Current Residence
- Montreal
- Current Position
- Sauvé Fellow
- Organization
- Jeanne Sauvé Foundation
- Profession(s)
Community Developer, Advocate
- Sector(s)
- Advocacy, Civic Engagement, Community, Consulting, NGOs
- Language(s)
- English, French, Spanish
- Mentor
- Philip Oxhorn, Chair, Department of Political Science, McGill University
- Interest(s) / Expertise
- advocacy, community, diversity, empowerment, youth
Jon is passionate about collaborative and inclusive decision-making. They believe that the best way to make our diverse societies more just is to increase the opportunity for every person and community to participate in the decisions by which they are affected.
Jon currently serves on the National Steering Committee for Resource Movement, a new organization mobilizing young people with wealth and class privilege towards the equitable distribution of land, wealth and power. They also work with Powered by Data to harness the potential of digital data for transformative social change.
Before becoming a Sauvé Fellow, Jon worked as Director of Head & Hands, a Montreal youth empowerment organization that has operated since 1970 within a collective, consensus-based governance model. For three years, they also served on the Board of Directors for Montreal’s Centre for Community Organizations, a group whose mission is to promote social justice, active citizenship, democracy, and just socio-economic development by supporting the development of healthy organizations and strong communities.
Jon’s earlier professional background was in management consulting and international project management. They worked with McKinsey & Company in Montreal and Ashoka in Berlin, and advised clients from the public, private, and social sectors on strategy and organizational development.
In alignment with their program’s theme of Public Leadership for Culturally Diverse Societies, the 2016-17 Sauvé Fellows decided to collectively explore the complexities of refugee integration in Canada. To advance their learnings, they led a critical reading group, conducted site visits, and met with a wide range of relevant stakeholders, including refugees and parliamentarians. Their team project’s goal was to develop and pilot an approach to refugee integration in a holistic and practical way that delivered both impact and thought leadership while espousing core values of agency, inclusivity, fairness and cultural sensitivity.
In tackling the issue of refugee integration and implementing their team project, the Fellows wrote a policy brief (which they presented to several ministers while in Ottawa) and an op-ed, produced a short film on refugee experiences in Montreal as well as organized a series of public events exploring refugee integration in Canada.
Links:
- Sauvé Fellow Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer’s Public Narrative (video)
- Sauvé Fellow Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer’s Public Narrative (written statement)
- A Leadership Encounter with Alnoor Ladha by Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer
- The Sauvé Fellows’ Team Project: The Deep Dive by Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer