Brought to you by McGill-Queen’s University Press
Faced with increasing demands from residents and amid growing legal and resource constraints, municipalities are experimenting to find new ways of making things work. This webinar will delve into the expertise and experience of local administrators in Canada who have successfully moved innovation from conception to reality.
Based on the new book, Inside Public-Sector Innovation, the webinar will feature success stories from Emma McGarry Ware, Simona Dinu, and Chris Walker, with analysis and commentary from Zachary Spicer, Joseph Lyons, and Tyler Romualdi. Discussion of the book's major findings will be followed by a Q&A.
Inside Public-Sector Innovation is a practitioner-oriented guide highlighting multiple innovations from rural, urban, and suburban governments of various sizes. Chapters cover challenges across policy domains, including diversity and inclusion, public health, environmental sustainability, and service delivery inefficiencies. Altogether, the case studies in the book enhance our understanding of what local public-sector innovation entails and how enterprising public servants can put it to immediate use.
Speakers
Emma McGarry Ware
Manager, Innovation, Regional Municipality of Durham
Emma leads initiatives that help design and deliver better services through collaboration, experimentation, and evidence-informed approaches. Her work focuses on building innovation capacity across government, supporting cross-departmental problem-solving, and helping teams co-design solutions to complex public sector challenges.
Emma leads Durham Region’s Innovation and Design Services program and has played a key role in advancing initiatives such as the Region’s Innovation Strategy and AI Design-a-thon. With a background spanning neuroscience, organizational development, and public sector innovation, she brings a systems-thinking approach to organizational change, helping government organizations adapt and evolve in the face of complex and rapidly changing environments.
Simona Dinu
Director, Service Excellence, Hamilton Public Library
Simona leads system-wide initiatives related to customer experience, service delivery, and service design. With over two decades of experience in local government, Simona is deeply committed to strengthening service cultures and delivering customer-centered services. In her mission to connect people and ideas, she is also an instructor at an academic institution and an executive coach.
Chris Walker
CIO, Town of Ajax
Chris began his career with the Town of Ajax as a summer student in 2002. He was among the Town's first GIS staff and spent 12 years helping to build and advance the Geographic Information Systems program. In 2019, he joined management, becoming chief information officer (CIO). Today, he leads the Town's technology, digital transformation, cybersecurity, and innovation initiatives, helping modernize municipal services and enhance both staff and residents' experience.
Zac Spicer
Associate Professor, School of Public Policy & Administration, York University
Zac is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University in Toronto, Canada. He previously served as the director of research and outreach with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). He began his career as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) at the University of Toronto.
Joseph Lyons
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director, Local Government Program, University of Western Ontario
